Consequences
by Jessa4865
Summary: Jack and Sam deal with the fallout of something they didn't even do. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Consequences  
Season 7 through Fragile Balance  
Disclaimer: Not mine.

_Author's Note: To be honest, I don't read much fic. I'm sure, however, this idea is hackneyed as all hell. I can only promise that I intend to make it my own and hopefully you won't think it's too awful._

Chapter One

Samantha Carter rarely hit the snooze button on her alarm clock. Samantha Carter rarely used the alarm clock at all. But her sleep had been interrupted by odd dreams where she was sure she was being watched and left her exhausted enough to hit the snooze button repeatedly. So many times, in fact, that the alarm shut off altogether in defeat.

She slapped it one more time, confusing the equally grating ringing telephone for the standard buzzing. When the slap didn't have its desired effect, she woke up enough to realize two things - she needed to answer the phone and she was terribly late, though not in that order. In her lateness-induced panic, she had one leg in her BDUs before she completely understood the ringing signified more than how very late she was. She didn't even know what time it was, just that it was never so bright when she got up in the morning. In fact, it was usually still dark.

Breathless, she grabbed the phone while pulling her pants the rest of the way on. "Car- Ow!" In her hopping attempt to get her pants zipped up without dropping the phone, she managed to slam her knee into the bedside table.

"Are you ok, Carter?" Normally, Jack's voice would have been welcome since she loved to listen to him talk, but when she was running late, he was sure to distract her.

"Yes, sir." She saw no need to go into details about oversleeping if it was at all possible. She had issues with admitting she was human and oversleeping was at the top of her list of things she got embarrassed about. She'd sooner walk into a room full of people naked than admit to needing something as normal as a good night's rest.

"Good."

She wanted to smile and allow herself to be amused by her CO's jovial tone, but the frenzy caused by oversleeping would not allow such an indulgence. "What do you need, sir?" She moved the phone away from her ear long enough to pull her t-shirt over her head.

"I'm just curious about something."

Her initial amusement turned to irritation as she ran her fingers through her hair for a millisecond before stepping into her boots and heading to the bathroom without bothering to tie them. "What's that, sir?" She smeared toothpaste on the brush and started working on her teeth, not quite caring if her boss knew she was brushing her teeth while she was talking to him.

"Are you planning on coming to work today or did I miss the memo about you taking the day off?" The tone of his question revealed that he wasn't in quite as good a mood as she'd originally thought. He was covering it, but he sounded angry.

"I'm sorry, sir. I overslept. I'm on my way."

"No, really, I've been known to lose a memo or two in my time."

"No, sir, it's my fault. I apologize."

"And there are, of course, those memos that never actually make it to me."

"I'm sorry, sir. Again."

"Are you sure you want to stick to that oversleeping line, Carter?"

"I swear, sir, the phone just woke me."

"You wear a watch, don't you?"

Because of the attitude she was getting from him, which was actually quite rare since she never gave him cause to be angry with her, she stopped long enough to check her watch. "I think it stopped."

"No, Carter, it's two."

There was a long pause, which was particularly rare from Carter. She never had occasion to be stupefied. "In the afternoon, sir?"

"Oh, yes. I assure you, it's two o'clock in the afternoon."

She was so flabbergasted by how late she'd slept that she forgot entirely about their ranks. "I'm seven hours late for work and you're only checking on me now?"

"The last time you disappeared it took two days for us to notice you were missing, Carter. See, I was worried." The defensive sound of his voice belied his words. "I didn't want to crowd you."

"You didn't notice, did you?"

"Ok, no. I didn't." He sighed. "I was busy working on some late mission reports."

"So what broke?" Forgoing breakfast and lunch, she headed for her car and prayed she hadn't been distracted into forgetting anything by the colonel's call.

"Why would you assume something broke? Can't I be worried about a member of my team who's never late for anything?" He sounded insulted, but she wasn't buying it.

"So what broke?"

He was silent for a minute, obviously weighing having to admit it against having to deal with whatever it was on his own. "Blue screen of death. I'm not rewriting those reports. I've been at them since first thing this morning."

She chuckled openly at him, assuming her assistance with saving his work would be worth him forgetting about how very late she was. "I'll be right there, sir."

"Drive safe, Carter."

Jack knew he shouldn't have teased Carter about being late. But since he'd known her for several years and she'd never given him such an obvious opportunity to tease her, he couldn't not tease her. Fate, being the evil, heartless bitch that it was, kicked him in the teeth the next day.

After a miserable night of not sleeping, having weird dreams, feeling generally uncomfortable and being unable to shake the notion that someone was watching him, Jack managed to oversleep himself. Unlike Carter's good luck, Jack wound up walking into a briefing that had started an hour earlier. General Hammond was not pleased with him and Jack, at the first opportunity of the general turning his back, snapped at his friends.

"You know, someone could have called me."

Carter, who felt much better after having had a full night's sleep and quite pleased that her own absence had been completely missed by the general, grinned smugly at Jack. "Well, sir, I was going to, but I didn't want to crowd you."

Teal'c and Daniel glanced back and forth between the pair, unsure whether they were truly angry with each other or not.

Jack, who had been angry - although more at himself than anyone else - felt his anger disappear, only to be replaced by a quite unsettlingly intense desire to kiss that superior grin right off Carter's face. He stared at her intently for a long, silent, almost palpably charged moment while his brain quickly produced a list of the possible outcomes of such a move. Although many of them involved a very willing Carter, he knew it was still probably a bad idea, especially when the general seemed unhappy. When Carter's face had turned an acceptable shade of red for Jack to rest assured his line of thinking was clear to her, he smiled, and his mind instantly conjured up a wealth of baseball statistics to distract him.

Once he was suitably under control, he nodded. "For the record, Carter, I won't mind being crowded if it prevents me having to explain being late to a general."

Carter tugged at her collar and turned her still blushing face to the papers in front of her. "Noted, sir."

Jack was contented enough at having flustered Carter that he was able to accept the general's ruff remarks about his lateness without making a smart remark or diverting the blame by pointing out how much worse Carter's infraction had been the previous day. He merely listened, arrogant grin firmly entrenched, barely noticing anything beyond Carter. By remaining quiet, Jack allowed his lateness and his inattentiveness to be forgotten.

And except for the occasional, inconsequential blunder by Jack, the lateness cleared itself up.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Carter jabbed the down button repeatedly. She was already running late for a meeting because she'd been distracted by one of her experiments. When she'd realized she was late, she hurried a little too much, upsetting the test that was running which caused a very small explosion. Except for some singed papers and a suddenly desperate need for a new lab bench, Carter figured it hadn't been big enough for anyone to notice. She would wait a few months, then demand to know why her requisition for a new bench had been denied. The general would be very apologetic for having lost the paper she'd never given him and therefore, would put a rush on the bench without asking for another form, thus sparing her from ever having to admit to being so clumsy as to blow up her bench in the first place.

It was her own peculiar and not particularly efficient system, but it had saved her from having to admit to such blunders in the past. It would involve having to hide the evidence for a few months, but it had worked for years and was infinitely preferable to getting a lecture about blowing things up. She liked blowing things up, even unintentionally, but she didn't like when people voiced disappointment in her. She was willing to do anything to avoid the fatherly you-let-me-down stare from anyone in authority.

So after carefully spreading out the non-burned papers to hide the damaged bench, Carter was even more considerably late for the meeting. And the elevator, which was taking its own sweet time, was not helping. She poked the button ferociously and was rewarded with the door opening, revealing a guilty looking Jack O'Neill.

Carter tried not to look angry as she joined him. Her finger hurt from the last jab of the button and she decided it was all his fault because he'd probably been holding the elevator for some untold reason - hence the guilty look - and therefore, Carter felt it was his fault that her finger hurt. For a fleeting moment, she thought about asking him to kiss it and make it better, but she realized how completely inappropriate that thought was and immediately denied to herself that such a thought had ever crossed her mind. Jack was the only person who had ever been able to elicit those sorts of impure thoughts from her and part of her resented him for it. The rest of her, however, still went weak at the sight of him and was more than happy to conjure up as many inappropriate thoughts as possible about him.

Frustrated, late, and in pain, Carter used her other hand to smack the door close button repeatedly. She did not have time to deal with a tired elevator.

Jack turned to her, fairly alarmed by the tension radiating off the usually mild-mannered woman. "What's the matter? Did you accidentally blow something up, Carter?"

Her eyes went wide momentarily, wondering how word had reached him so quickly. But one glance at his dark eyes, brimming with laughter, told her he was only kidding. As usual, what he thought was a goofy, random thought was dead on. She had no intention of revealing her mistake to him. And his amusement eased the irritation she felt. "I don't want to be late for the meeting, sir."

Jack made an exaggerated motion to check his watch. "Unless this is a time machine, it might be a little late to change that, Carter."

Two minutes in his presence and she was in a much better mood. She'd completely stopped caring about being late, melting her bench, and the irritatingly slow elevator. In fact, the fairly large majority of her brain that preferred the unsuitable thoughts about her CO would have been quite happy to spend the rest of eternity trapped in an elevator with him. She simply smiled at him, silently promised herself that she would stop imagining him without a shirt when they were in small, closed spaces, and enjoyed his good mood. "Yes, sir, I'll just blame it on you."

"I had nothing to do with you being late!" He looked offended and scared as he led the way out of the elevator, probably because people usually believed any excuse Carter offered up.

Carter smiled smugly. "The general doesn't know that."

"Normally, I'd agree with you, but I was just on the phone with General Hammond and he sent me to get something, so he knows why I'm late and he knows it has nothing to do with you."

Carter rolled her eyes, hoping she could sneak in behind Jack and not be noticed. "So what did he ask you to get?"

Jack indicated the folded blanket in his hands. "Don't ask. I have no idea."

"Why would he ask you to bring a blanket to a meeting?"

"Carter, what did I just say?"

She closed her eyes, vividly recalling his words to not ask. "Sorry, sir. It just threw me."

She looked away, doing mental gymnastics trying to guess why the general would need a blanket. She was always cold in the conference room, but she couldn't imagine Hammond wrapping up in a blanket to stay warm. He was the one who had control over the temperature in the building. She ducked behind the colonel as they entered the room and tried to find her way into a chair before the general noticed her.

"You're late, Major."

Carter looked up, alarmed not only at his sharp voice, but also because she hadn't actually prepared an excuse. Revealing the explosion in the lab as an excuse for being late would not endear her to the man since she hadn't exactly followed protocol an gotten clearance for the experiment in the first place.

"It was my fault, sir. I held her up. It won't happen again." Jack barely had to glance at her to convey the unspoken message - she owed him one. Once they were settled, Jack addressed the general again, deciding it would be prudent to ignore the man's bad mood. "So, to what do we owe the pleasure, sir?" He placed the blanket on the table and shrugged at the curious stares of Teal'c and Daniel. "And why do we need a blanket? Are we having a picnic?"

General Hammond didn't look happy. "Thor indicated that one might be necessary." The Asgard calling a meeting was most likely the explanation for the general being upset.

Carter looked between the men nervously. "Did Thor mention what he wanted?" As much as she liked the little gray fellow, his presence tended to mean people's lives, usually her own or Jack's, were in danger.

The general didn't answer, except to look at his watch. Apparently, he had no idea what was going on, besides the fact that the entire universe seemed to be running late. Not knowing what was going on, having to be the only person with a tight schedule, and being left to assume that whatever was going on wasn't something good, made Hammond particularly irritable. He sighed and glanced at the four teammates around the table. "Thor only requested a meeting with SG-1 and, of course, mentioned the blanket."

Jack turned to Carter. "Do the Asgard use blankets?"

Carter shrugged. "I would have thought they had the technology to regulate the temperature of the environment rather than relying on a crude comfort measure."

Jack smiled at her. "Are you sure you're not the missing link between humans and the Asgard? Cause sometimes you sound more like one of them than one of us."

As he spoke, a bright white flash signaled the arrival of their friend. Thor nodded at them in his usual way.

Carter stared at the alien, unable to put her finger on what exactly was different about him. "Thor?" Her eyes darted to Jack, who was also staring strangely at Thor.

"Good afternoon, Major Carter."

She glanced at the general, who didn't seem to notice anything different. Daniel also didn't look perplexed, but Teal'c's brow was furrowed. "Is something different about you, Thor?"

"Thank you! I thought it was just me." Jack looked exceedingly pleased with her question.

"We have finally found a solution to the genetic breakdown in our cloning process. This body is somewhat closer to my original form. Several generations of bodies must be utilized to return completely to our natural states after so many years of degradation."

Jack leaned toward Carter. "He's bluer than he used to be, right?"

She nodded. "And taller too." She hadn't noticed until Jack mentioned it, but Thor was a hair bluer than he had been previously. For some reason, probably because blue was her favorite color, she found the new shade much easier on the eyes.

"So, congrats on solving your issues there. Glad you stopped by." Jack stood up, knowing that it was too easy for Thor to have stopped by only to show off his new body, but he was still hopeful. "Let me guess, your new skin isn't as thick and you're thinking of investing in some blankets."

Thor blinked in his passive way. "A soft fabric seems to provide both physical warmth and psychological comfort to humans. The Asgard have no such implements."

Carter didn't know where he was heading, but she had an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"You wanted a binky?"

Carter couldn't help but giggle at the colonel's words.

Thor blinked again, probably searching for the Asgard translation of binky. "I have no desire for this device. I requested it for use by the human."

Carter knew it wasn't for any of the humans around the table and the sick feeling intensified. "What human?"

Thor looked at her before moving his hand slightly on the armrest of his chair. Another flash of white light appeared and dissipated in the center of the conference table, revealing a tiny, naked, screaming baby. "That human, Major Carter."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Giving in to her first instinct whenever small babies were involved, Carter shoved herself away from the table and cowered against the far wall. "Augh!"

Everyone was dumbfounded, but Jack was the first to respond. He unfolded the blanket, gently wrapped the little girl up, and rocked her carefully in his arms. When he was done, he glanced at Carter, who was staring at him and the infant with huge, terrified eyes.

"I thought you liked kids, Carter."

"I like kids." She slowly slid against the wall until she was as far away from the baby as she could possibly be and still be in the room. "I hate babies."

Jack had always been good with kids and the baby's cries had died completely away. "How can you hate her? She's just a little baby."

"Babies frighten me, sir." She stayed where she was, pressed flush against the wall, hands outstretched against the concrete as if searching for a trap door. "I don't trust anything that appears helpless while managing to completely control everyone in comes in contact with."

As if to prove her point, both Daniel and Hammond had approached Jack and were conversing with the baby in childishly high-pitched, nonsensical words.

Teal'c was watching the interactions of the team silently while keeping his own distance from the baby.

Carter looked at Thor. "Where did you get a human baby? Take it back to its parents." She glanced at the baby, who at that moment was getting cuddled by the one man Carter herself wanted desperately to be cuddled by. It wasn't rational to be jealous, but she was. She firmly believed that there was no female in all of creation who deserved more than she did to be safe in those strong arms. And no one was ever going to convince her otherwise.

"I have to apologize for the irresponsible creation of this child by one of Loki's assistants." Thor's voice held a note of distaste, which was quite rare for the small creature.

His words caught Jack's attention, at least, the half of it that wasn't soothing the infant. "Isn't he in Asgard jail?"

Thor nodded. "He is unable to continue his cloning experiments. He does, however, have some loyal followers who have continued his research in his absence against the Council's wish."

Suddenly looking quite pale, Jack handed the baby to Daniel before slumping back in his chair. "Why do I think I'm not going to like this, Thor?"

"One of Loki's associates is Lofn."

Daniel looked up from the baby with the stupid smile intended to soothe her still in place. "Lofn, she's the Norse goddess of forbidden love." His stupid grin turned comical as he glanced between Sam and Jack. "She smiles on illicit unions."

Jack pretended he didn't notice Daniel's smile or words and addressed Thor. "What does that have to do with this baby?"

"Lofn also believed Loki's conviction that O'Neill represents a great step forward in human evolution." Thor shifted slightly toward Carter in what she perceived inexplicably to be an apologetic manner. "Lofn's research, however, centered on finding a suitable genetically advanced mate for O'Neill in the belief that the offspring of such a union would provide the answers our scientists have sought for many generations."

Carter slid down to the floor and buried her face in her hands. "This is not happening."

Jack was the only one in the room who somehow understood that her actions were not based in jealousy, but in an awareness of something more devastating. His eyes turned wary as they darted to the tiny girl in Daniel's arms. "Oh, god."

Thor continued in his unapologetic way. "Lofn's research established that Major Carter's genes, in combination with O'Neill's, would provide the necessary genetic advancement to resolve our dilemma." The hush that fell over the conference room at that statement was not at all comfortable, but Thor either didn't notice it or didn't care. "Although we do not approve of her methods, Lofn's ideas were correct and she was able to produce the genetic solution."

General Hammond, who was modeling a shade of red that Carter, under normal circumstances, would have feared indicated a massive heart attack, finally found words. "Are you telling me that one of your scientists produced a child with Colonel O'Neill's and Major Carter's genes without their consent?" His calm, quiet voice belied his obvious anger.

Thor nodded. "Lofn believed that O'Neill and Major Carter would not have willingly cooperated. I believe her assessment of the situation was correct."

"You still could have asked!" Jack wanted to throttle his ex-buddy, but he was pretty sure he was having a heart attack himself.

"It was the Asgard Council's decision that, although successful, Lofn's research materials should be destroyed after the corrected genetic structures were recorded in our cloning methodology."

Carter looked up from her hands, recognizing the detached scientific jargon. "What do you mean destroyed?" She didn't like babies, but she didn't like the way the SPCA destroyed unclaimed kittens either.

Thor turned to her. "The Asgard have no further use for the experimental subject, however, as your friend, I suggested that humans have complex moral issues surrounding the destruction of research materials. You may either choose to keep this human or I will return it to the ship for destruction."

Jack was on his feet in a flash. "Destruction? First you make us a baby without telling us and now you're going to pop in, show it to us and then kill it? What the hell is wrong with you?"

If Thor was alarmed by Jack's aggressive stance he didn't show it. "I did not have to even make you aware of its existence. I am offering you the chance to keep it."

Jack approached Thor, leaning in to the alien's face closely, and narrowed his eyes. "It is a baby and I would sooner see you and your entire race destroyed than my child."

Thor didn't blink. "You are then keeping the subject?"

The veins popped out of Jack's neck and, with Daniel's urging, Teal'c stood up to pull Jack away before he could tear Thor limb from limb.

Daniel's eyes turned softer as he stared at the baby, knowing it was Jack and Carter's daughter. He loved her. He felt like a dad himself. He peeked at Thor. "Thor, is she ok? Is there anything wrong with her? She's not unstable or anything, is she?" He was thinking of Jack's clone, the one that was doomed to die without intervention. He was the only one who could think straight enough to ask those questions.

"She is in perfect health."

Daniel looked at Carter, feeling her pain and shock. "When was she born?"

"The cells were gathered several months ago and joined immediately in Lofn's laboratory. The subject became viable at that time. It became cognizant and able to survive in an unprotected environment three Earth days ago."

A beep emanated from the side of Thor's chair. "My ship is needed in battle. I must have an answer regarding the destruction of the subject."

Jack tried to fight past Teal'c, still bent on killing Thor. "Well, she sure as hell isn't going with you!"

Thor disappeared in typical Asgard fashion without another word. Jack's homicidal rage left at the same moment, leaving him leaning heavily against Teal'c.

Hammond nodded at Daniel. "Please take that child to the infirmary immediately. I want her carefully examined."

Daniel stood up, cradling the girl in his arms. Jack and Carter both had a distant, vacant look about them. "Teal'c, why don't you come with me?" Teal'c nodded after making sure that Jack wasn't going to fall without his support.

Hammond left the room quietly, leaving two dazed officers alone in the room.

Jack somehow found his way to the wall beside Carter, sliding down to sit next to her. Neither spoke. Neither looked at the other. But when his hand reached between them to tangle with hers, she didn't resist.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

They sat in silence for a long time. Their joined hands said enough.

Besides the standard idea that she would get married and have children some day, Carter had never seriously given any thought to the idea. Years earlier, when Janet had mentioned the possibility of Jolinar having affected her ability to conceive, Carter hadn't been upset. She didn't know if she even wanted kids, but she knew it was something she would have preferred to decide for herself. And, she thought wryly, consulting with a willing father would have been something for her to strive for.

She was still shell-shocked, something she suspected she would continue to feel for a long time. It didn't even seem real, especially following the sudden departure of everyone in the room. Her mind worked to figure out another reason for her to be collapsed on the floor of the briefing room holding Jack's hand, but nothing came to mind - not even Thor dropping in and giving them a baby.

She thought about Jack's immediate response - to protect his child - an instinct it appeared she didn't share. Despite the idea she'd always had that he would never want another child, she'd witnessed his gut reaction. It seemed that he might want to keep the baby, even if Carter decided otherwise. It was something she knew she would have to take into consideration because she knew Jack would fight to the death for someone he loved.

The idea of raising a kid with Jack, sharing something so profound with him, sent a chill through her. Having a baby didn't seem so scary when she thought about having Jack there with her. In fact, when she really thought about it, she started to wonder if the reason she didn't want kids was based mostly, or entirely, on the fact that she believed the only man with whom she would want to have kids didn't want them.

Jack released her hand suddenly, but by the time she turned to look at him, his arm had curled around her back. His head leaned close to hers and she wondered if the situation had removed any boundaries between them. She didn't think that would last for long - it wasn't like they'd made a baby. They were just given one. Although, it was theirs. Together. The psychological ramifications of that thought were too much for her and she shuddered.

Jack's arm tightened around her and his voice sounded softly in her ear. "Are you ok?"

She looked at him, seeing compassion and concern in his eyes. She reminded herself that, stolen genes made into baby or not, he was her CO and he likely always would be since she didn't see either of them going anywhere anytime in the near future. She opened her mouth to assure him that she was fine, but found she couldn't lie. "I don't know."

He nodded, full of understanding. "Me either." He took a deep breath and climbed to his feet, offering his hand to help her up. "We should probably go make sure Janet's not poking the poor thing full of holes."

She accepted his help, but didn't release his hand as he led the way to the infirmary. She needed the moral support, cameras be damned. Besides no one would care about a little hand-holding once the rumors starting circulating, she thought with an irrational giggle; she was the mother of his child after all.

Her giggle earned her a curious glance from Jack, but he didn't say a word. His hurried pace continued, practically dragging her along behind him through their joined hands. She saw his hurry and his single-mindedness in getting to the baby. That infant was already number one in his eyes. It made her sad to realize it because she'd already been replaced without ever getting to experience being his number one. She wanted to cry as they rounded the corner that led to the infirmary and idly wondered if it was possible to have post-partum depression without having been pregnant.

The baby's shrill cries drowned out any other thoughts. Carter dropped Jack's hand, choosing to stay back by the door. She told herself it was scientific detachment, that there was always a good chance the baby was a bomb and that hadn't really been Thor that dropped her off.

"Doc? Is she ok?" Jack was visibly disturbed by the cries. Carter was pleased for a moment, thinking he was having the same thought as her as to why someone didn't shut it the hell up. But then she saw the distress on his face and knew that he was worried.

She'd always heard that it was instinct, that a mother instantly loved her child. But Carter had decided, in the half hour she'd been a mother, that it was an instinct one developed during pregnancy, because she certainly didn't have it.

Janet stepped toward the cot where the baby was lying, seeming even smaller in such a large space than she had in the briefing room. "The physical exam was routine. I'm going to do a CT scan to be sure everything is normal. I'll also need to draw some blood."

Carter wanted to hug her friend for her utter professionalism in not mentioning the pedigree of the baby. She saw the relief in Jack's eyes as he reached out, gently touching the baby's miniature hand. She hoped he wouldn't be too disappointed in her for her complete lack of maternal instincts. At least they wouldn't have to worry about a custody battle since she had no interest in raising the child.

Carter watched stoically as Jack leaned forward, shushing the baby, soothing her with his gentle touches. She'd never seen him so careful, so loving, so gentle. And then Janet crossed into her line of sight. The doctor was carrying what Carter figured was a normal syringe, one the same size as the million or so she'd been stuck with in her lifetime. But compared with the baby's body, the needle seemed unduly large and Carter was certain it would cause unbearable pain.

"No!" Carter surged forward, pushing Janet out of the way and placing herself between the petite doctor and the baby. "You can't hurt her."

"Sam, I just need to take some blood. It won't cause her anymore pain than it would cause you or I." Janet's concerned expression mirrored that of Jack and Daniel and everyone else in the room, but it only vaguely registered to Carter.

"I won't let you hurt her." Tears pricked her eyes and she got very angry at herself for showing emotion, completely unaware of the emotion she was showing beside her tears. "She's only three days old, Janet. Please don't hurt her."

She felt strong hands wrap around her shoulders, gently pulling her away from her daughter. She looked up, expecting to find Teal'c or Daniel behind her. It was Jack, looking at her with every bit of the concern he'd been showing their baby. "Sam, it's ok. Janet's not going to hurt her."

Carter watched as Janet, who seemed to be in slow motion, turned to one of the nurses. "I'm going to need some Xanax over here, please."

Carter jerked right out of Jack's grasp. "You can't give that to a baby! You'll kill her!"

Jack's chuckle seemed cruel and callous as he moved his arms around her once again. She wondered why he wasn't trying to protect the baby anymore. "Carter, I think that's for you, honey."

Janet's eyes moved up over Carter's head and she slowly approached with another syringe. "I think she's in shock, sir."

"I think that's understandable, doc. Speaking of which, can you spare a little of that?"

Janet's snicker was followed by a prick on her shoulder and within seconds, Carter felt her knees give out. It was barely a second after that when the world went dark.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Carter slowly came to, somehow comforted by the beeps and hums of the infirmary equipment. She looked around, blinking in the harsh light. None of the monitors were connected to her. It appeared that she'd simply gone to sleep there. She turned slightly, a massive headache assuring her some sort of medication was involved - she always got headaches when Janet gave her something.

She turned a little more, moving slowly so as not to disturb her head anymore than she had to. Jack was sitting in a chair beside her, but he was facing in the other direction. She smiled, knowing he was probably playing with things Janet would rather he didn't touch. It always made her happy to find out that he'd been with her, keeping watch, when she was sick.

"Sir?"

He turned around, a smile spreading across his face when he met her eyes. "Sleeping in, Carter?"

She winced as she recalled the day months earlier she'd slept through. She certainly didn't want to make a habit of having her CO wake her, even if it was an absolutely astoundingly pleasant way to greet the day. Propping herself up and scooting over to the edge of the bed, she realized thankfully that she wasn't in a hospital gown. She was dressed in her regular clothes. Thoroughly confused, she shook her head until a sharp stabbing pain reminded her she had a headache.

"How long was I out?" In her time at the SGC, she'd learned that it was never a good idea to assume it was even remotely close to when she'd last been conscious, especially when her last conscious memories involved people shooting at her or completely ridiculous ideas.

He shrugged as he glanced at his watch, probably realizing that he had no idea when she'd passed out. "A couple hours maybe?"

"What happened, sir?"

Jack grinned. "We discovered that you have a protective streak that rivals mine." He stepped to the left, revealing what he'd been playing with - and it wasn't expensive medical equipment. It was a gurgling baby.

Carter squeezed her eyes closed. "Damn. It wasn't a dream."

"Not unless I'm the one having it."

Opening her eyes, she took a deep breath. She was having trouble reconciling the warring desires in her mind - one told her to run away while the other told her to protect her daughter. Her head hurt too much for running, or at least, that was what she told herself. "Is she ok?"

Jack deftly scooped the tiny thing into his arms and brought her closer to Carter. "Ten fingers, ten toes."

Carter forced herself to smile, but she wasn't sure she was relieved. She couldn't help but think they all would have been better off if the baby had been a ploy.

Jack held the girl out to her. "You want to hold her? You haven't had a chance to yet."

Panic rolled through Carter. Holding babies was not something she felt comfortable with. She shook her head. "I'm still a little woozy. I don't want to drop her."

Ever thoughtful, Jack sat down next to her on the bed, shifting the baby as close to Carter as he could. "See? She's perfect." Jack had to be the proudest father she'd ever seen, which was kind of alarming under the circumstances.

Carter looked at the baby, watching as her daughter looked at her for the first time. The baby didn't make a sound, but it seemed that her lips curled the slightest bit in a smile and Carter could have sworn she had her father's infectious grin. Carter felt fresh tears in her eyes even as she smiled back. "She is perfect."

Jack pulled the baby back in front of him and pressed a kiss onto her head. Carter couldn't believe how emotional and loving he was allowing himself to be in front of her. He was nearly in tears himself. "You're beautiful, princess." Carter saw the baby gazing up at him with the same openly adoring gaze she'd caught herself giving him on more than one occasion. "Absolutely beautiful. Just like your mommy."

Carter's face reddened in embarrassment and she looked around to make sure no one had overheard. Glancing at Jack, she realized he wasn't even paying attention to her. He was completely infatuated with their daughter. He didn't even seem to notice he'd said anything aloud.

And somehow, that made his words more real, more honest.

She smiled involuntarily at his compliment and decided she might not mind being number two. She sat there, alarmingly close to Jack with her head damn near resting on his shoulder, while he amused himself by talking to the baby in a silly voice that made Carter giggle and kept the rapt attention of the infant until she drifted off to sleep. Once the baby was sleeping, Carter expected Jack to get up, but he didn't. He just kept staring at her, his expression unreadable.

She decided, based on that look, that he would be receptive to her honesty. She sat up a little, putting a tiny bit of space between them. He seemed alarmed by her movement, but she figured it was too late to pretend she hadn't done it on purpose. She nodded at the baby. "I don't know what to think about this. Or what to feel."

He nodded. "I don't know what to think either, Carter." His eyes shifted to hers for a second. "I'm not sure I have a choice about what to feel."

"You seem to be taking it in stride better than me, sir."

He grinned and made a big show of looking around. "There's no one here, Carter."

And he thought she made completely random leaps in conversation. "So?"

"Call me Jack."

She wanted to be proud that she'd finally gotten permission to use his name, but her mind was caught up elsewhere. "So what do we do, Jack?"

Jack shrugged, keeping up his sudden openness with her. "We may not have had a choice, Carter, but we have her now. We move on."

He obviously wanted the baby. He obviously expected she did too. He obviously expected that such a connection between them would far exceed the limits of their working relationship as evidence by his request that she use his first name. But she didn't know what that meant. She didn't know how they could be friends - not with the way she felt for him and the way she believed he felt for her and the affection he was apt to show her at times.

Not knowing what else to do and not having received the answer she wanted from her CO, which had been a clear explanation of his expectations of her in the given situation, she changed the subject. "What else happened while I was out?"

"Well, no other aliens popped in with babies, if that's the question." He glanced at her, a guilty look passing over his handsome features. "Thos might have stopped by again."

A fleeting moment of hope that Thor had made a mistake identifying the parents of the infant put her in a good enough mood to make a joke. "Short battle he was called to apparently."

Jack grinned. "I'm guessing that might just have been a convenient excuse for him to get out of here before I strangled him."

"Did he have anything to say for himself?" She was waiting for him to say it, to let her off the hook, to give her an easy answer as to why he hadn't given her a definitive answer to her earlier question as to what to do and feel. She was also curious to know if an apology was coming, because she had quite a long mental list of things she could demand from the Asgard, technology-wise, in exchange for her forgiveness.

"I don't know what he was here to say. He kind of left in a hurry." Jack looked even guiltier before he turned and ran away.

"What happened?"

"I might have run him off again."

She couldn't believe he had freaked out again. She couldn't believe he was admitting it to her. "You didn't!"

"I was mad." He shrugged at her, while grinning at the sleeping baby. He glanced back at Carter and she saw that an instant of looking at their child had softened his eyes once again. "I still am. He had no right to threaten to hurt her."

Carter shook her head, pleased with herself for trying to maintain her professional distance since it prevented his words from hurting. Kind of. "He had no right to do a lot of things, Jack." Her voice revealed her anger and Jack's head snapped up from where it had turned back to the baby.

"I don't think Thor was lying about how she was created, Carter. The only issue I've got with him is that he was willing to destroy her." His expression was concerned, but Carter could tell that it was concern about something other than her mood.

"I've got a laundry list of issues with him, sir." Her switch back to his rank was intended to let him know that she was angry at him for missing the point, but he missed that point too because he was so used to being called sir.

"You would have let them hurt her, Carter? You shoved Janet out of the way when all she wanted to do was examine her."

Unexpectedly, another wave of emotion rolled over her, hating him for even thinking that. "Of course not!" She wiped at the tears in her eyes and wished that she knew how to snatch the baby from Jack's arms without injuring her. But she didn't and she felt impotent. "I just meant that's hardly the only thing they did wrong, sir."

Jack shifted the bundle in his arms deftly, freeing one hand to reach out and trace Carter's cheek. His concern for her was back and more blatant than it had been in years. "I know, Carter." Anger flashed in his eyes and Carter understood that his reaction to Thor hadn't been only in the baby's interest.

She stared back at him, feeling the weight of his concern and the love that underlay it. His eyes darted away from hers for a fraction of a second, briefly lighting on her lips before meeting hers again.

And she knew, without a doubt, the baby cradled against his chest was the only reason she hadn't been crushed to him in an embrace that most likely would have peel the pain right off the concrete walls.

And that was just as stunning as having an advanced alien race pop in to say they made her a baby.

Consequences.4


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

A startled squeak from the doorway drew their attention away from each other. Daniel, Janet, and Teal'c were weighted down with packages. Behind them, Carter could see a few enlisted men also carrying packages. She glanced at Jack, knowing he had something to do with their purchases. "Sir?" She also figured, with their audience, that a switch back to formality was necessary.

"I sent Daniel to the store for some stuff."

"I think he bought the entire store."

Jack looked at the group, suddenly suspicious. "Daniel, didn't I give you a fairly short list?"

Daniel nodded proudly. "I hope we're not interrupting anything." His words merited a giggle from Janet and a grin from Teal'c. "Anyway, I did get the formula and the car seat and the bottles and the diapers and the onesies."

Jack looked at the giant pile accumulating as everyone dropped their packages. "So what's all this?"

"Well, Janet thought she ought to come with me to make sure I bought the right stuff."

Teal'c smiled as he placed a large bag, overflowing with toddler-sized clothes at Carter's feet. "I thought it best to accompany them. I have personally ensured your child with have clothing beyond her first year of life.

Carter looked at the blue overalls with red trucks on the top of the pile, but she couldn't find the words to tell him they were boy's clothes. He was too proud of himself. She glanced at Janet, who only shrugged. Carter looked back at Teal'c. "Was it necessary to buy them all today?"

Teal'c nodded. "It is a rare occasion when I am offered the use of O'Neill's credit card." Before Jack could freak out, or perhaps to ward off a physical attack, Teal'c snatched the baby out of Jack's arms, cradling her tenderly. "This is indeed a precious child."

Whether it was seeing the dopey grin on Teal'c's face or his obvious enchantment with the baby, Carter felt a wave of pride fill her. She wanted to stand up and shout to the world that it was her baby. She turned toward Jack, wanted to share a moment of parental pride. But Jack's eyes were on the pile of stuff they'd brought in.

"Daniel, how much did this cost?"

Daniel grinned as he opened the box containing the car seat. "It didn't all go on your card, Jack."

Teal'c smiled as he passed the baby to Janet's outstretched hands. "Indeed. We all contributed financially."

Jack closed his eyes and visibly relaxed.

Daniel was pulling pieces out of the car seat box, trying to assemble it without tools or the instructions. "Once your card was maxed out, we didn't have much of a choice."

Carter watched as Jack tensed again. She knew the feeling of having someone else rack up huge debt on her credit cards - Orlin's single-use Stargate in her basement had cost her nearly twenty grand, not counting the electric bill or the repairs to the basement. She patted his back. "At least we won't have to buy baby clothes for a while."

Daniel looked up from the mess he was making. "I had no idea how much fun shopping for babies was. I just couldn't help myself."

Teal'c had been pulling items from one of the other bags. He stopped on one item, intently studying the label on a can of formula with a confused look on his face. He looked at Carter. "I do not understand this item. Do human mothers not feed their children?"

Carter grabbed the can from him. "Human mothers usually give birth to their children, Teal'c."

Teal'c continued to look confused, glancing between the formula and Carter's chest. "Major Carter, you appear physically well equipped to provide adequate nutrition for your offspring."

Janet and Daniel dissolved into a fit of giggles. Carter's face turned several shades of red. Jack became fascinated with his shoes, but Carter could see the blush that had swept across his face. Teal'c stood straight-faced, waiting for an answer.

Carter began studying the label on the formula, deciding to ignore Teal'c until someone else distracted him. She wanted to figure out how to do something relating to her child on her own.

Jack slid off the bed, taking the parts of the car seat away from Daniel. "I'll get this, Danny. Why don't you keep Teal'c from harassing Carter anymore?"

Rather than taking his advice, Daniel took the baby out of Janet's arms and tried to quiet the fussing that had only just started.

Within three minutes, Jack had the seat assembled and was placing his precious cargo in it. The baby immediately settled down, gazing happily at Jack.

Carter was not one to be outdone; her competitive spirit was insisting that she do something of value. She found one of the bottles in the bags, hiding her grin at the adorable bunny with a pacifier on the side, washed it and disinfected it repeatedly, and then proceeded to prepare a bottle. She didn't know how much to feed a three day old baby or even if she could eat in the position she was in, but it made Carter fell better to have something in her hand.

Jack smiled when she approached with the bottle. He was also holding a little pink dress with a little pink bear in a tutu stitched on the side. He held up the little pink hat and matching booties proudly. Under any other circumstances, Carter would have doubled over laughing, just as Janet and the boys ha, but it wasn't other circumstances. He was the father of a perfect, beautiful baby girl and she was the mother of the same perfect, beautiful baby. She could only smile back stupidly, knowing full well that all of their friends were laughing at them.

"Do you want to hold her while you feed her?" He moved to lift the baby, but Carter stopped him.

"She looks so comfortable." Carter sat down next to the car seat, trying to pretend she wasn't nervous about feeding her baby for the first time. Her hand was shaking as she held out the bottle. But the baby seemed to know exactly what to do, latching onto the bottle, closing her eyes and sucking happily. Carter was so proud of herself. She looked up at Jack, beaming at having figured something out for herself. Jack was beaming back at her, looking like the biggest sap in the world as he took the seat on the other side of the carrier. Even the laughter died out from the peanut gallery as everyone watched the scene spellbound.

General Hammond's voice broke the silence. "As heartwarming as this is, this base is no place for a baby. Colonel, Major, you are both officially on leave until we get a chance to figure out what you're going to do."

He looked around, noticing that everyone's attention was directed at the baby and that no one had acknowledged him.

"Don't the rest of you have jobs?" His bark caused a momentary flutter of activity that only lasted until he walked away.

Jack pulled his attention off the baby. "Daniel, assemble your friends and pack this stuff in Carter's car."

Daniel looked uncomfortable as he sighed. "Um, Jack, there's still stuff in your truck."

Jack looked around, wondering what else they'd bought. "Like what?"

"Like the bassinette and the changing table and the dresser and the paint-"

"Paint? You bought paint?"

Daniel shrugged and looked to Teal'c. Teal'c nodded. "I insisted that a shade of paint be purchased that would coordinate with the bedding and the wallpaper border."

Jack turned to Janet, who should have been a bit more in control. She shrugged. "I only pointed out that it was cute, sir. It was their idea to buy it."

Glancing at Carter, who was too charmed by her daughter to notice what was going on, Jack shrugged. "Fine. Put it in my truck. We'll be up as soon as she's done."

"You're going to Sam's place, right?"

Jack's thought process hadn't gotten that far. "Why?"

The group of friends looked among themselves. "Well, there's some stuff being delivered tomorrow and I gave them Sam's address. I just figured-"

"Whatever, Daniel."

The troops disappeared with the bags, leaving Jack with Carter and the baby. The baby finished her bottle quickly, her tiny belly only able to absorb so much. Carter watched in awe as Jack burped her and changed her and dressed her in the dancing bear dress. Carter had never in her life wanted to squeal like she did watching Jack with his baby, her baby, their baby. Instead, she held on to what little military discipline she had left and only looked on with a content smile.

Once the girl was settled, Jack offered Carter the car seat to carry. Carter took it eagerly, hiding how shocked she was to discover how heavy it was. She decided that was a good thing, that it meant the baby would be safe in the car. Jack led the way to his truck and helped Carter secure the carrier in the back. Carter climbed in the back of the cab, insisting that she ride with the baby.

Jack climbed in the front and buckled himself in, grinning at his girls in the rear view mirror. "Ready to go home?"

Carter directed her bright smile at their little bundle of unexpected joy. "Yes, Jack."

Consequences.5


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Carter's attention was completely focused on the baby all the way home. But when the truck slowed to a stop, she looked up to discover they were a block away from her house. "Jack?"

"What the-"

Carter didn't want to acknowledge that Jack apparently couldn't remember where she lived, but it appeared she didn't have much of a choice. "Sir?"

"Maybe we should go to my place."

Carter followed Jack's stare up the block to the group of neighbors standing outside her house. It was alarming because not only was Carter an exceptionally private person who liked to keep to herself, but also because she had never interacted with her neighbors even once in all the time she'd lived in her house. "What's going on?"

Jack slowly turned to look at her, sheer dread on his face. "Are you blind?"

Carter looked again, wondering how she'd missed it the first time. The neighbors hadn't just decided to gather around her house for the hell of it. No. They were looking at the world's most obnoxious display of new arrival paraphernalia ever assembled in one place. There were streamers everywhere, which Carter had every intention of leaving there until nature cleaned them up. At least three different cardboard storks attached to stakes were driven into her perfect lawn. A mass of what she eventually determined to be silly string had been sprayed all over every surface that wasn't covered in pink streamers and even many that were. She whimpered. It was exactly a low-key person's nightmare and her friends had been kind enough to provide it for her.

Jack looked at her again and she could only shrug. It had been a long day and she was looking forward to going to bed early, provided Jack was planning on staying to watch the baby. She wasn't feeling up to a trip across town to Jack's place.

She smiled at his blatant distaste and at the string of curses she could only imagine were lighting through his mind. "You know, if you hadn't been with me, I would have thought you were behind this."

"Admittedly, Carter, I'm a big fan of practical jokes," He inched the truck closer to her house, waiting for the throng of neighbors to move aside before he pulled into the driveway. "I would, however, never stoop to mortifying myself."

"Maybe we can stay in the truck until they go away."

Jack looked at her with an inquisitive glance. "Aren't these people your friends?"

Carter shook her head. "I don't know any of them. I'm not here that much and when I am, I'm certainly not out making nice with the neighbors."

Jack pulled the key from the ignition and let out a long sigh. "I bet you wish you'd listened to me when I told you to start work on a teleportation device."

"If I promise to never openly mock you again, sir, can we please go back in time and fix that little mistake?"

Jack just grinned at her as he climbed out of the truck, looking every bit the proud papa as he escorted Carter and their daughter into the house.

Normally, Carter would have offered to help Jack with all eight million packages their friends had purchased, but she didn't want to leave the baby alone long enough to run out to the truck and back. Besides, she decided it wasn't necessary since four of her neighbors were more than happy to provide additional assistance.

Carter didn't spend too much time dwelling on the packages rapidly filling the living room. As Jack was unloading the truck and making nice with the neighbors she'd never given the time of day to, Carter was having a quiet breakdown. She was afraid the room was too cold or too hot or too bright or too dark or too loud or too something. She was in full-on panic mode when the neighbors finally left and Jack started assembling the bassinette. Of course, Carter's panic was silent and Jack had no idea.

Carter had heard numerous stories from her parents about what an amazing baby she had been. She hadn't cried or fussed or made life the least bit difficult for them. Carter looked at her daughter, who was wide awake and staring up at her silently, and prayed that her child would be the same way. Carter reached out, letting her baby's tiny hand wrap around her finger. She was overwhelmed with emotion at that moment. She'd never imagined loving anything so much.

"Damn it!" A loud clang followed Jack's exclamation as the screw driver fell to the floor, narrowly missing his face. He sat up, his finger in his mouth, nursing both a cut and seriously injured pride.

Carter looked at him sharply, feeling a fierce protectiveness rising up to match the love she'd felt. "Watch your mouth!"

Jack looked at her wide eyed for a moment, obviously weighing the possible outcomes of reprimanding her. In the end, he let it slide. "Sorry."

He abandoned the bassinette and disappeared into the kitchen. Carter wondered if she should apologize or check to see if he was mad, but she didn't want to take her eyes off the baby. Rationally she knew the baby wasn't going anywhere and they'd both hear her if she started to cry, but Carter couldn't move. She knew what it was like to look around and discover no one was paying any attention to her. And even though she'd later learned that it was a vote of confidence that she was mature enough to amuse herself without hurting herself or someone else, she knew it had hurt for a long time. She didn't want her baby to learn that feeling of disappointment; certainly not so soon.

Jack returned from the kitchen with a bottle in his hand and barely glanced at Carter as he scooped the baby up into his arms. "Are you hungry? You look hungry." He cradled her gently in one arm, holding the bottle with the other hand. The baby closed her eyes, settling in happily for her dinner. Jack put his feet up on the coffee table and finally looked at Carter. "Where's the remote?"

Disappointed in both of them for not needing her more, she nearly threw the remote at him. She only stopped herself at the last minute for fear it would somehow hurt the baby. "I'm going to take a shower."

"Ok." Jack's attention was glued to the news and Carter stalked off, upset at herself for being upset.

When she returned, she felt much better, especially when she saw that both the baby and Jack had dozed off in front of the TV. She sat down next to Jack on the couch, taking note of the way his arm held the baby tightly even in his sleep. She leaned close, marveling at the audacity she found.

"Jack, wake up."

His eyes blinked open immediately, just like she'd expected. But his expression was startled from seeing her so close, probably from seeing her in the skimpy, tight tank top she slept in when she was home, and mostly, from the baby still sleeping in his arms. She watched him for the millisecond it took his brain to process what had happened. Then he smiled at her. "Hey, Carter." He glanced at his watch. "Is it morning?"

She smiled and busied herself with staring at the baby, trying to hide the fact that she had no compelling reason for waking him. "If you get a kink in your neck, you're not going to be able to paint in the morning."

He chuckled softly, mindful not to wake the baby. "Oh, so now I'm painting?"

Carter leaned back on the couch, pretending not to notice Jack's appreciative stare. "Well, now that I've got a man trapped here, I figure you can paint and fix the squeaky step on the back porch and fix the garage door and maybe even discover why the refrigerator makes that horrid noise when I open the door."

Jack looked confused. "Aren't you perfectly capable of doing all that?"

Carter grinned, happy that Jack's attention had been drawn to the bare patch of skin on her belly when she stretched. "Yes, but I never get around to it, and I've learned that it's never a bad thing to stroke a man's ego."

Jack sighed. "I guess. If that's the only thing you're offering to stroke."

"Jack!" She nearly jumped off the couch in surprise.

He only laughed as he settled the baby in the bassinette. "Two can play that game, Carter."

She looked at him with her best innocent stare. "What game?"

He winked at her. "I'm beat, Carter. Where am I supposed to sleep?"

Ignoring the question since answering it would inevitably leave her alone with a baby which she had no clue how to care for, she warily eyed the bassinette. "Are you sure that's put together?"

He looked at it. "It's standing up, isn't it? Close enough."

She was on her feet in a second, leaning over the baby without the slightest clue of what to do if the furniture fell apart in front of her.

Jack laughed to himself. "Yes, Carter, it's put together. She's safe. I promise."

Carter glanced between Jack and the baby several times before she decided he wouldn't kid about the infant's safety. "Thank you."

"So, bed?"

Her eyes met his. Her mouth dropped open. Her heart pounded in her chest. She couldn't believe he was being so bold, so outright, so… She couldn't believe he was laughing.

"I meant for me, Carter."

She closed her eyes and wondered if it was too late to kick him out. Millions and millions of women had raised children without Jack O'Neill around to help them. "I knew that."

"I assume you'd expect dinner first."

She grabbed the closest thing she saw and hurled it at him. He ducked the rattle easily and it flew noisily down the hall.

"I hope she doesn't inherit your temper, Carter."

She folded her arms across her chest, knowing full well that, considering her position on the couch in front of him, it would give him a very nice view of her cleavage - something she never got the opportunity to use against him in her standard issue SGC t-shirts. "You'll be lucky if you don't wind up sleeping in the truck at this point."

It took him a long time to drag his eyes up to her face and when he finally did, they were dark with passion. Unfortunately, his mind was having too much fun teasing her to flirt. "Are you sure you're not Irish? Cause you certainly have an Irish temper."

Quite displeased that her cleavage torture hadn't had the desired effect, she got up and stomped into the kitchen for something to drink. "Leave me alone."

A minute later, his voice came from the doorway behind her. "So did you want me to leave?" He sounded unsure, nervous.

She turned around and shook her head. "Spare bedroom. Second door on the left."

"Night, Carter."

"Jack?" An overpowering panic filled her at the notion of being alone with the baby. "What if she wakes up?"

He turned around, halfway down the hall and smiled what would have been an irritatingly condescending smile if he hadn't been so damn cute. "She's three days old, Carter. She'll wake up."

Carter peered over the counter, checking to make sure the baby was still sleeping. "What if she starts crying?" Just because she hadn't yet didn't mean it wouldn't happen the minute Jack wasn't there.

Jack snickered. "She's three days old, Carter. She'll start crying."

"So what do I do?" She didn't care how ridiculous she looked - she didn't want to traumatize her daughter while she tried to look up ways to comfort a crying baby on Google.

"Pick her up."

She wanted to strangle him. If it were that easy, there was no explanation for all the kids she'd heard crying in public. "And then what?" Directions. She needed directions. She could do anything if someone pointed her in the right direction.

"Sing to her. Rock her." He shrugged and then winked at her once again. "You're a smart woman. You'll figure something out." And then he disappeared without another word.

Consequences.7


	8. Chapter 8

_AN: Like all of my stories, this tends to defy two-category labelling. Please keep in mind, as you read, that it's supposed to be funny too, hence the slightly over the top-ness of some of the behavior._

Chapter Eight

Her nap at the SGC had not revived her enough to stay up all night, especially since she refused to do anything besides stare at the baby. There was an entire list of things she needed to do, pre-baby, on the fridge, but she was glued to the edge of the couch, afraid to take her eyes off the baby. She wondered how Jack could have gone to sleep, leaving his newborn daughter in the care of quite possibly the most inept hands in the galaxy.

Unlike the rest of society, Carter felt no compulsion to try to hold every baby she encountered. Unlike all of her teenage friends, Carter hadn't even wanted to baby-sit. She didn't even think most babies were cute, except for her own. She'd seen her niece and nephew, had even visited them when they were very young, but she'd never been alone with a child under ten. She desperately wanted to hold her daughter, but she looked at the perfect pale skin and delicate body and she was too afraid to do anything beyond stare. Most women had time to get used to the idea of having a baby. And Carter decided that, had she been given nine months to feel as anxious as she did to hold her baby, it would have been enough time to get over her insecurity.

She braved glancing at her watch, only to discover that Jack had only been asleep for an hour. It was going to be an unbearably long night. She turned back to the baby. Carter cursed herself for having looked away because the baby's eyes were wide open and she didn't look particularly pleased with her lot in life. It seemed like it was happening in slow motion as her face crumbled and she started to wail. Carter tried shushing her. Carter tried talking to her. Carter even tried singing to her. The baby continued to cry. She tried giving her a bottle, but the baby wasn't the slightest bit interested. She even tried changing her diaper, since she didn't have to lift her from the bassinette to do so. But it didn't help. Her child was screaming and she had no idea what the baby needed.

Finally, in a psychosis induced by unrelenting screams of a baby, Carter ran for her life, crashing through the door to the spare bedroom in a heavy-handed manner that instantly reminded her why she was afraid to pick up the baby. She grabbed Jack's bare shoulder, not even noticing that her nails were digging into his flesh or that she was getting her happy little fantasy of Jack without his shirt.

"Jack! Wake up!"

He pried her hand off his shoulder. "Damn it, Carter. What time is it? What are you doing here?"

"This is my house."

He sat up and looked around. "Oh, yeah. What's wrong?"

She had no idea how he could ask that, considering the deafening cries. "The baby, Jack. She's crying. Get up and fix her!"

He lay back down, laughing. "She's not broken, Carter. She's a baby."

Hearing her baby's cries, feeling helpless, and being laughed at rendered Carter near hysterical. "She's crying, Jack. I don't know what to do. You can't just let her cry! She's your daughter too."

Jack rolled over, blinking the last bit of sleep from his eyes. "Bring her here."

Carter sprinted to the door before remembering she couldn't bring the baby to Jack. Not without draying the bassinette down the hall. "Uh, Jack?" She didn't want to say it. It was too embarrassing. It was too obvious to even need mentioning.

Jack seemed to understand finally. He stood up, grabbed Carter's hand, and dragged her down the hall. "Come here, Carter."

"Like I have a choice." She was referring to the tight grip he had on her hand, but mentally, she knew she wasn't going anywhere as long as he was shirtless. Knowing he was going to comfort the baby, she was able to relax, nearly starting to drool at the strong muscles that rippled when he moved. Luckily, she was saved from totally embarrassing herself when the cries shifted into a screech. It completely distracted her from her eye candy and she immediately felt guilty for even thinking of anything else.

He let go of her when they reached the end of the hallway. He sat on the couch and patted the cushion beside him. "Here, Carter."

"What am I, your dog?" She thought being rude might help disguise the desire and accompanying shame in her eyes.

"You're learning how to pick her up."

"Now?" It was the middle of the night. She was tired. She wondered if she needed to take notes.

"Yes, now, unless you can stand to listen to her cry."

"God, no." Humbled by his words, Carter sunk down into the seat beside him. "I'm afraid."

Jack smiled at her. "She can't bite until she has teeth, Carter."

"I'm afraid I'll break her."

He probably would have laughed if he hadn't been so tired. "You're not going to break her. You don't break things."

She closed her eyes, images of the ruined lab bench and the explosion that morning and repeated other screw-ups floating through her mind. She hung her head. "I break things all the time. I just don't always own up to it."

Jack contemplated her for a long time while he rocked the bassinette gently. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that." He scooted forward and reached out his arms. "Here, like this." With barely any effort, the baby was safely cradled against him. "See? She's not broken."

"How do you know?"

"She's still crying." His words were accurate; the baby was still crying, though not nearly as loud.

"And how is that a sign she's not broken?" Carter would have thought that happy, healthy babies didn't scream loud enough to wake the dead.

"It's a sign she wants to be held, Carter. Here." He stretched the baby out toward her.

"No." She wanted to hold the baby, but she didn't want to upset her. "You got her to quiet down a little. You probably shouldn't move her."

"I'm right here, Carter. You won't hurt her." Jack's eyes held hers, making it clear that he wasn't about to fall for her excuses.

Carter's arms were shaking as she reached out, accepting Jack's guidance of how to support the baby's head and how to make sure her arm wouldn't fall asleep at the same time. She was still shaking as she pulled the baby against her chest, trying to comfort the persistent cries. "She's so tiny." Tall or not, Carter was not exactly an imposing person physically, but her skinny arms still dwarfed the baby.

And amazingly, the baby looked up at her, offered that same expression she had earlier that Carter could have sworn was a smile, and stopped crying.

Jack shifted around, completely unnoticed by Carter, until he was sitting behind her. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around both of them. "She needs us to protect her."

Flashes of all the things she'd seen in her life, with the Stargate, in the military pestered the perfect moment. "She'd probably be better off with someone else."

His face pressed against hers and his arms tightened the slightest bit. "No, Carter. We're here parents. There's nowhere safer for her."

"She's not crying anymore." She turned toward Jack, amazed to discover how very close he was.

"I told you she just wanted to be held." His eyes danced as he teased and Carter knew he meant her as well.

Nervous, she looked back at her daughter, who was drifting back to sleep. "And you're sure she's not broken?" Carter felt the rumble of his laughter against her back.

"I never thought I'd see the day Samantha Carter was insecure."

"I don't mind being responsible for the fate of all of civilization in the universe, Jack, but this is harder. This is scary."

"Yeah, I know." The harsh tone of his voice revealed exactly where his mind had gone at her words - to Charlie.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean-" Carter heard herself babbling, but she couldn't stop. They never discussed his son. They never discussed anything touchy and emotional. He refused to talk about things that hurt and she didn't try to make him.

"It's ok, Carter. You're supposed to be protective of her. If I were you, I wouldn't let me near her."

Carter shook her head, wanting to reach for Jack and keep him from hurting, but her hands were full. She had to rely on her words, so she chose them carefully. "She would be a million times better off with you, Jack."

"My track record's not so great." His arms released her and he carefully extricated himself from them.

"Jack, please. It was an accident. I know that. You know that. It won't happen again." She turned to face him, holding his eyes until he looked away.

"No, it won't." He glanced back at her, anger and pain flashing in his eyes. "We're baby-proofing the house in the morning."

The thought of Jack plugging the outlets with plastic covers warmed her heart and she had to smile. "We should probably decide which house she's living in first."

His expression fell as he looked at her and she could see the moment it sunk in that they weren't together. "She should be with you. Mothers are important."

"So are fathers. You loved her from the moment you saw her. You know what you're doing. I think she should stay with you." It killed her to say it, it killed her to think it, but she didn't want to imagine the misery she'd put a baby through waiting for her to figure out what to do.

Jack swallowed hard and carefully avoided Carter's eyes. "Maybe we should stay together for a while. You know, just until she's settled."

The idea made her heart leap. The idea that Jack said it first nearly made her heart leap right out of her chest. She decided to play it cool and prayed her pounding heart wouldn't wake the baby. "Think they'll let us?"

"I don't see how they can stop us as long as we're on leave." He smiled as he leaned back, stretching out and patting his side for Carter to join him.

She kept her eyes glued to the baby as she snuggled into Jack's hold. "If we're moving in together, however temporarily, and we're going to raise this baby together, Jack-"

"We should probably give her a name."

"Exactly."

Jack nuzzled his face into her neck. "Can we decide that in the morning?"

"Is she safe like this?" The baby was settled between them, but Carter wasn't sure how still all three of them could possibly be.

"She's fine. Go to sleep, Carter."

"Are you sure?"

"You have the neurotic mother thing down so soon."

"So you're sure?"

He chuckled as he kissed her cheek. "Yes, Carter. I'm sure."

Carter smiled, praying he meant about her too.

Consequences.7


	9. Chapter 9

_AN: Sorry for the delay... I've been busy and then I was away all weekend. Please R&R!_

Chapter Nine

Morning found Carter alone on the couch. Had it not been for the empty bassinette in the middle of her living room, she might have thought the entire thing was a dream from falling asleep on the couch. But there was a bassinette and a room full of things well-meaning friends had bought with Jack's money. And there was the quilt that someone had carefully tucked around her. She smiled happily and reveled in the contentment for a moment before she got up to search for the rest of her instant family.

She found them in the kitchen; Jack staring into a bare cabinet, their daughter snuggled face first in his neck. Carter almost sneered out of jealousy for that incredibly luck child, but then she remembered how he'd let her sleep in his arms and she decided they could share. "Morning."

Jack leaned back and smiled. "You don't have Fruit Loops, do you?"

She shook her head. "Wasn't expecting company."

He moved to the fridge to stare, trying to conjure up things that weren't there. "Carter, what do you eat?"

She moved past him and started up the coffee maker. "I eat at work. It's much easier that way. Someone else has to do the dishes."

Checking the freezer, he discovered some sort of toaster pastry. "How old are these?"

Carter shrugged. "I wouldn't eat them."

"Obviously, or they wouldn't still be here." He ripped open the box and put one in the toaster oven. "They're frozen. How bad could they be?"

"If you survive, make me one." The coffee was taking its own good time, so Carter turned to Jack and stretched out her arms.

Jack grinned cheekily. "So I don't have to buy you dinner first?"

"If you weren't holding the world's most adorable baby, I'd hurt you."

Still grinning, Jack handed over the tiny bundle who, to Carter's glee, accepted the switch without exception. "The world's most adorable baby still needs a name, Carter."

Carter had never once thought about baby names. On occasion when someone told her the name of their baby, she would pause long enough to wonder why anyone would do that to their child willingly, but that was as far as she got. It was another one of those things she assumed came up during pregnancy. "Any ideas?"

Jack's brow furrowed while he poked at the pastry, determined it was half-frozen, and put it back in to toast again. "What about Maggie?"

Carter considered it seriously for a minute. Maggie was cute, but Margaret was a big name for a little baby. And then she noticed the smirk on Jack's face. "No, absolutely not."

Jack wiped off the smirk. "Ok. What about Li-"

"No Lisa or Bart or Marge or Homer."

"D'oh!"

Carter chuckled to herself, quite proud for having avoided accidentally naming her child after a cartoon. "Any legitimate suggestions?"

Jack shrugged. "What was your mother's name?"

It was a perfectly thoughtful suggestion. So much so that Carter wished she didn't have to spoil it. "Samantha."

Jack shook his head as if he thought the act would change the answer. But Carter's face was serious. "You're kidding, right?"

She smiled. "My dad was overseas and apparently there was some Demerol involved. My mom swore she thought they were asking for her name, but dad never believed her."

"So I guess that's out?"

Carter nodded. "What about your mother?"

Jack shook his head. "Louise."

"Maybe we should get a book or something."

"We could ask Daniel to find something nice."

Carter grinned. "By the time he settles on something, she'll be old enough to pick out a name for herself."

"We should probably decide on a last name for her too, Carter."

She looked up startled. "O'Neill."

Jack looked just as startled. "Are you sure?"

"She's your daughter."

"She's yours too." From the look in his eyes, it was clear that it meant a great deal to him.

Carter was glad she hadn't hesitated. "O'Neill. We're not going to argue over it." She firmly believed that children should have their father's name, unless there was a legitimate reason otherwise. There were some traditions she thought had merit.

"We could hyphenate it."

"Stop."

"Yes, ma'am." He turned away to pull his burnt pastry out of the toaster oven. Carter could see his grin in the reflection and she smiled. There was hope, she decided, that someday she'd have the same name, but she could surprise him with that shock some other time. She watched as he put another in the toaster before offering her the burnt one in his hand.

"It's all yours."

He tossed it in the trash before he poured them each a cup of coffee. "What about Cheyenne?"

She glanced at the sleeping baby. "Cheyenne." It felt so natural on her lips; it was a word that meant a lot to both of them. A friend of hers had a daughter named Cheyenne. She grinned as she met Jack's eyes. "We could tell her it's where we met."

"And where we spent most of our time."

"And where we met her."

"And where she'll probably spend a fair amount of her childhood since I seriously doubt the Air Force is going to let both of us stay on leave until she's eighteen."

"It's perfect, Jack."

He grinned. "Cheyenne it is."

"We should call people." She wanted to tell the world. "I'll call my brother."

Jack grinned. "I'll call Daniel."

Carter reached for the phone and started dialing the number. But then she put the phone back down. "What am I supposed to tell him?"

"That you have a daughter named Cheyenne?" Jack's eyes widened. "Just don't mention me."

"He might guess when he hears the O'Neill part." Carter contemplated her daughter's blue eyes that had only just opened. "Maybe we should just send out announcements and not answer the phone when Uncle Mark calls."

Jack reached out and snatched Cheyenne from her mother's arms. "But we can still call Uncle Danny now."

Carter took Cheyenne right back. "We can call Uncle Danny while Daddy starts painting your nursery."

"And we're back to the painting."

Carter smiled in what she hoped was a placating manner. "While I go through the bags and see how much stuff we can return?"

Somewhat soothes by the idea of getting his credit card paid off before Cheyenne's college tuition was due, Jack smiled. "Ok, so I'm painting. After breakfast."

By the time Jack successfully cooked the pastry completely without burning it, they were down to the last one. They split it in half while they finished their coffee.

"This is actually pretty good." Carter inspected the indiscriminate berry filling closely, wondering why the included seed-like bits in what she was sure was an entirely man-made concoction that had never so much as seen a picture of a berry.

"If I'm going to paint, I'll want lunch afterward and in order to get lunch, we're going to have to go to the store."

Carter looked at Cheyenne. "We? As in all of us?" The phrase 'like a family' nearly fell out of her mouth, but she stopped herself just in time.

Jack shrugged. "Yeah, why not? You'll probably object if I only bring back beer and pretzels and hot dogs."

Grinning at the idea of them going out together like a family, she raised her eyebrows. "You don't know that."

Jack grinned back, trying to pretend he wasn't searching his memory for what she liked to eat. The truth was he usually spent shared meals either completely absorbed with what he was eating or entirely spellbound by Carter's mouth, so her tray never got much attention. "Ok, then, you're not allowed to complain about anything I bring back."

"No, it's ok. We can all go." The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to be seen in public with her precious baby and the gorgeous father of her precious baby.

"I should get some stuff from home too if I'm going to be staying here."

The first thing Carter thought was that it would be a shame since she much preferred him without a shirt. But then she wasn't sure if he was trying to back out of the invitation or not. "You'll probably get done faster if you go alone." She figured it would give him a way out if he didn't want her to go.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." His voice had an edge to it that was hard to read. Carter wanted to believe it was because he didn't think she wanted to go.

She convinced herself that he was just giving her a way out. "I should go. According to Daniel, you're broke."

Jack laughed and stood up. "I'll take her if you want to get dressed."

Carter busied herself with handing over Cheyenne to distract herself from his words. She was quite comfortable in her pajamas and she'd been paying no attention to the amount of skin she'd been showing. The look on Jack's face clearly indicated that, although he'd been keeping up his end of the conversation, it had not slipped his notice. She decided to postpone the analysis of how much she enjoyed sitting around with him while they were both half dressed and discussing what they were going to do with their day. Ducking into her room, she quickly dismissed the idea of showering. She wanted to take one, but she didn't want to be rude and she figured it was only fair that she wait until Jack would have the opportunity to get one as well. She changed quickly, throwing on jeans and a t-shirt. Normally, she would have put on makeup, just a little to make herself presentable, but it wasn't normally. She stopped in the spare bedroom on her way back to grab the shirt Jack had left there the previous night.

"Ready." She put his shirt over the arm of the couch.

Jack looked up. "Already?" He had, it appeared, dumped all of the bags out all over the room.

"Was there a tornado in here?" She leaned over to check on Cheyenne in her bassinette, which Jack had decided to also use for additional storage - there were clothes hanging all over it.

"Daniel actually managed to forget a diaper bag."

"They must not have sold them because I'm pretty sure he bought everything in the entire store." She held up the booster seat which was a few years early.

"Do you have a back pack?" He looked particularly irritated at Daniel's excessive purchases, which Carter quickly realized had something to do with the breast pump sitting on the coffee table.

Carter shook her head at the situation. There was such a thing as being too thoughtful, and she felt that Daniel had crossed that line. "We're only going to the store. Do we need one? We could just buy one while we're out." She saw the smirk on Jack's face. "Right, I'll go get one." When she returned with the bag, Jack had a pile of things to take - bottles and diapers and a change of clothes, a pacifier, a rattle, and baby wipes. She didn't say anything; her face said it all. She didn't even like to carry a purse with her unless she had to; carrying luggage everywhere she went was going to take some getting used to.

Jack winked. "Trust me."

"Ok." Carter grabbed one of the outfits hanging on the bassinette. It was bright green with orange stripes. There was another one directly below it the exact same but in red and blue. "Please tell me this is the pile of stuff you don't want to keep."

Jack looked up, noticing the two outfits she held. His eyes widened in fear. "You don't actually think I would want to keep them, do you?"

Carter grinned and tossed them on top of the breast pump box. "That's the return pile." There was yet another disgusting outfit before her. "We should probably take everything back and pick out stuff we like." Jack was arranging items in the bag, so Carter put Cheyenne in her car seat. She smiled, feeling like an old pro at handling her daughter when her daughter gazed up at her happily.

"You can sort through it while I'm painting." He made a face at the outfits she'd rejected. "It can't all be that awful, but I trust your judgment." He motioned between the packed makeshift diaper bag and the baby. "Which one do you want?"

She grinned. "The cute one." Picking up the carrier, she headed for the door.

"I thought I was the cute one." Jack pulled his shirt over his head and grabbed the bag.

Carter shrugged at him, trying to hide her blush by looking at Cheyenne. "Not anymore."

Consequences.6


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Carter was an organized person. She liked to plan and make lists and have every possibility covered thoroughly before she started anything. Many people, friends included, had indicated that her organizational habits bordered on slightly obsessive. Carter was well aware of their criticism, however, she believed strongly in the power of efficiency and level-headed decision making and found that being able to drop off her dry cleaning, get her car washed, stop at the bank, and complete her grocery shopping in under an hour was well worth any flack she might face for being a planner.

She had a vague understanding, based entirely on Jack's insistence on bringing a bag full of back up baby parts, that having a baby with her at the grocery store could feasibly slow the process. She also decided that having another adult present would cancel out any lag due to the presence of said baby.

Carter, unfortunately, had not adequately planned for the idea that not only would the inclusion of Jack and Cheyenne slow the process unfathomably, but also that Jack's over-packed bag would not actually contain enough supplies.

Carter was blocking the cart's path while Jack tried to get past her. The baby, who'd burned through both bottles, the change of clothes, and all but one of the diapers, was screaming her adorable little head off while Jack and Carter continued their standoff. Carter knew it was a good thing that neither of them was armed because it was quite likely that they would have shot each other given the opportunity.

After two and a half hours in the store, Cheyenne's blatant unhappiness was perfectly understandable. Carter was contemplating screaming herself. Since their arrival, Jack had overridden every decision and suggestion she'd made, insisting that he knew better than her what she needed in her house and what food she liked to eat. And really, perhaps because of the desperation that only a screaming baby can produce, his declaration that she was switching brands of paper towels that day had pushed her over the edge. She liked her paper towels because the little flower design exactly matched the wallpaper in her kitchen. And while she thought that was a perfectly valid reason to continue using her brand, she found herself completely unable and unwilling to explain it to Jack. She just couldn't bring herself to tell her CO that she like the little blue flowers. Instead, she held her ground with her foot planted on the overflowing cart.

"You're just trying to take Daniel's spending spree out on me. Go torture him."

"Carter, we have a baby. We're going to need paper towels. Lots of them. These are cheaper."

Legitimately, he had a point. And if the argument had started on the paper products, she would have conceded the point. But it had started with the opposite end of the store, with him declaring that the bread he always bought tasted than the bread she'd been eating for over thirty years, and had continued up and down every aisle in between. The only thing left between them and the check out line was the paper towel decision, so Carter had to make a stand.

Carter put her paper towels on top of the cart for the fifth or sixth time. "When you like in your house, you can buy whatever the hell you want. When you live in my house, you'll buy what I want."

"Your daughter is crying and you're fighting with me over paper towels. Maybe you should let it go." He reached for the paper towels to put them back, pausing slightly when Carter started to growl.

Just in time, another couple happened by. The man grinned at Jack, possibly deciding because of the presence of a baby in his own cart render his suggestions valid. "Unless you want to sleep on the couch, I'd let her pick whatever she wants."

Jack was going to glare at him and tell him to mind his own business. Carter was going to mention that Jack was going to be sleeping much further away than the couch. But the woman leaned over the carrier and peered at Cheyenne. "Oh, she's precious!"

Carter was on the verge of plugging her ears. "Doesn't sound so precious at the moment."

"How old is she?" The woman was smiling happily, seeming to not even notice that Cheyenne's water works had started up her own child's.

Jack, distracted from the paper towels, beamed proudly. "Four days."

The woman looked at Carter suspiciously. "How on Earth did you get back in shape so fast?"

The choice of words made Carter grin. Her eyes darted up to meet Jack's and saw that he was fighting the same smile. Carter looked back at the woman. "The Earth had nothing to do with it." The other couple looked at each other strangely as Jack and Carter laughed.

Fearing they might ask what that meant, Jack abandoned the paper towel fight and pushed the cart out of the aisle. Carter followed him, grinning contentedly that her choice was still in the basket.

As soon as they were out of hearing range, Jack stopped and turned on Carter. "I can't believe you said that."

Carter reached for Cheyenne, trying to soothe her into quieting down. "What was I supposed to say?"

"Why didn't you just tell them our buddy Thor made her for us?"

"Then they would have thought we were crazy."

"As opposed to what they think of us now?"

Carter winced at both Cheyenne's obvious misery and Jack's valid argument. "So they think we're crazy. We don't know them."

Jack reached for Cheyenne, trying his hand at quieting her, and had, to Carter's amusement, the same amount of luck. "Are we finished?"

Carter was pretty sure he had no idea he'd been unsuccessful in the thwarting of her paper towel purchase and she felt no desire to remind him. "I think so."

"Ok, good." He replaced the baby in the carrier and joined the line to check out. "Maybe she'll settle down in the car. Charlie always liked the car."

"Really?" She'd heard something to that effect somewhere, something about babies liking the motion, but she'd never had the chance to measure its validity. She grinned when she saw the dismay on Jack's face as he finally noticed the paper towels.

He sighed and started laying items on the counter. "Yeah, driving around always put him right to sleep." His mouth curved upward in a smile as he remembered good times. Carter didn't say anything because she didn't want to remind him of the bad ones. And as much fun as they were having playing family for the day, she didn't want to remind him that they weren't one.

By the time they'd paid what Carter considered a staggeringly inordinate amount of money on groceries and got them loaded in the truck, Cheyenne was sound asleep. Carter stared at her, unsure why she'd had to carry on the whole time they were in public.

She looked at Jack. "So what was that?"

He shrugged. "That was why you don't take four day olds to the store?"

The two of them stood there with the empty cart and stared at the sleeping baby. Carter nudged Jack. "Why don't you put her in the truck?"

Jack shook his head. "No way. If she wakes up and starts crying, you'll say it was my fault."

"Well, I'm not going to do it." Carter crossed her arms over her chest and wondered how they could move the car seat into the truck with the least possible disruption to whatever it was that had gotten her back to sleep. "You're the one with all the experience."

Jack grinned. "And my experience is that you let sleeping babies lie."

Carter smirked. "That had better be the last time you compare my daughter to a dog."

"But I like dogs."

"Do you want to be fed to one?"

Jack's eyes widened the slightest bit, not at her threat but at the fact that she made one. "Um, no, not really. So maybe we should just wait until she wakes up on her own."

"You're just trying to get out of painting."

"There's no way I can possibly win, is there?"

Carter grinned smugly. "Nope."

"Didn't think so." Stepping forward, Jack very carefully lifted the car seat up.

Cheyenne's eyes opened instantly. Jack and Carter held their breaths as she looked up at them, waiting for the wailing to start again. But it didn't. A happy gurgled was the only sound she made.

Jack smiled at Carter before he buckled the car seat in. "She likes me."

Carter climbed the front seat, but not before looking Jack up and down in a way she'd never quite dared. "Obviously, she's got my good taste."

Jack was still blushing when he started the truck.

Consequences.4


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

After a quick stop at Jack's place, they headed back to Carter's. Jack wanted to stop for a diaper bag, but Carter wouldn't let him. He'd been in charge of the shopping expedition and since she was still bristling about it, she wasn't going to bend. She decided, given the disaster at the grocery store, that not only were they not taking Cheyenne with them until she was old enough to behave, but there would also be a considerable amount of planning and possibly a written contract stipulating that Jack had to be fair in the decision making process.

They got the bags as far as the kitchen. Jack made a few attempts at putting things away, but Carter was not about to have her cabinets rearranged. She pushed him out of the room. "I'll put everything away."

"I can help." Jack, who figured it was some sort of test for her to determine if he was going to let her do all the domestic chores, held his ground in the doorway, clinging to the box of dryer sheets. His face was impassive; he was not going to screw up.

Carter smiled and yanked the dryer sheets right out of his hands. "You can help me by painting."

He rolled his eyes, but didn't argue.

She busied herself with unpacking the groceries, signing for the furniture that was delivered, and making lunch. She made a valid attempt to bring the changing table and crib to the nursery, but the boxes were so heavy that she couldn't make it any further than the living room. She prayed the boxes contained decent furniture because she really didn't want to have to take them back as well. As it stood following a visual inventory, over half the things that Daniel bought were going back. Carter made a mental note to ask just what Janet had been thinking, since she had ostensibly been there to help.

She ducked into the spare room, which had been converted into a nursery fairly quickly. The furniture previously occupying the room had been disassembled. The room was a shade of pale yellow which Carter was sure she owed to Janet. She would not have stood for pink. Jack was on a stepstool, hanging the wallpaper border around the ceiling. It featured baby animals with no concession to reality. She was annoyed, but she didn't say a word.

Jack turned around and grinned at her. "So, do you think the baby lambs know they're probably about to get eaten by the baby wolves?"

She grinned. "Personally, I was more concerned about the zebras and lions playing together, but I see your point."

Jack shook his head, obviously having expected such a response. "Besides the geographical, biological, and scientific inaccuracies, is it ok?"

Carter nodded, unaware that Jack wasn't looking at her anymore. "It's not pink."

"Pink is…" He was fishing because never once in their relationship had things like appropriate colors for a baby's room come up.

"Bad. Very bad."

Jack nodded. "Noted. No pink."

"It's cute, barring the logical fallacies. Good job."

"Thank you." Jack turned around to face her, revealing that he'd gotten quite a lot of paint on himself and his clothes.

"Yellow is a good color for you, Jack." She continued, not knowing quite what to make of his inexplicable grin. "I've got lunch when you're ready."

"It'll only take me a minute to finish this."

She returned to the living room to sort the pile of baby tings. Jack made it two steps into the room before he noticed the boxes of furniture. "Should I assume I'm putting them together as well?"

Carter shook her head. "I can put them together. I just can't lift them."

Eyeing the terribly large pile of merchandise to return, Jack sighed. "What are the odds the furniture is decent?"

"If it's not, we'll paint it. It'll be too much trouble to take it back." She led him into the kitchen and got the sandwiches out of the refrigerator.

"We'll paint?"

She grinned. "Yellow really isn't my color." When his face didn't crack a smile, she tried shamelessly batting her eyes at him. "You'll paint and I'll be eternally grateful?"

"I'll get started after lunch." They ate in silence for a few minutes. Jack glanced at Cheyenne who was chewing on one of the plastic toys. "Guess that one's a keeper."

"Yes, she does seem to like it, doesn't she?"

"Apparently she didn't get the pink is bad memo."

"She can't read yet." Carter shrugged at him. "She'll learn. Considering her parents, I don't see a lot of frilly pink in her future."

"Carter, we're not dressing her in olive drab."

"Unless she likes olive drab."

"Not even then. I never get to see you in anything else, so I'm taking advantage of this."

Carter blushed and focused on picking at the cheese in her sandwich. She was pretty sure he was interested in seeing her out of work clothes, hence out of work. And so, it followed that meant he was interested in moving their relationship out of the coworkers with a baby stage. Of course, the rules surrounding the coworkers with a baby arena were pretty vague, so she wasn't sure what that all entailed. And beyond flirting, she wasn't sure it could work. There were so many things they didn't know about each other. She wasn't ready to push the issue - not with so many other involuntary changes.

"I'll make space for the bed in the other room. That way there will be room for the other stuff in the nursery." Carter saw no sense in maintaining the pretense of an office at home. When she worked at home, it was on the couch with her laptop.

"We could just put everything in storage now. It'll probably be easier since I'm here and so is my truck."

Carter didn't want to think about the inevitable day when he would leave, joint custody or not. "If we put it in storage now, where will you sleep? I don't think the couch will be good for your back on a long term basis."

Jack looked up from his sandwich with a wide smile. "We worked it out last night."

Her face burned red when she thought about snuggling in his arms. She didn't want him to know he was surprising her so she tried to play it down. "That's always an option."

But Jack was not one to be thrown, certainly not so soon after she'd thoroughly embarrassed him by commenting on his looks. He stood up and put his plate in the sink, leaning down as he passed her chair to whisper in her ear. "Well, then I guess that's worked out." His lips brushed her skin as he spoke, causing a shiver to run through her which she knew he felt.

He made quick work of carrying the boxes to the nursery and Carter would have happily followed him. She loved putting things together - anything at all - and she would have had a blast assembling her daughter's furniture with Jack. But she was very well aware that, if she followed him, she'd be just as likely to jump him as to put together a crib. Besides, she figured if she hid out in the kitchen for a while, Jack would have to solve the dilemma of the bed on his own. She wouldn't mind a bit if he dragged it out to his truck, thus promising her a million different opportunities to finagle him to share her bed. And she wouldn't blame him a bit if he reassembled it in the other room so he could have a place to hide out when he realized she wasn't just flirting with him.

She finished deciding what to keep, even going so far as to load it in the truck. She washed the dishes and rocked Cheyenne while she gave her another bottle. Once Cheyenne was changed and settled down for a nap, Carter was out of ideas. She headed toward the nursery with two bottles of water and a determined set to her jaw. She was not going to let him know he was getting to her. It was the only way she could hold onto her sanity and his respect.

But then she walked in and found him sweaty and shirtless and glaring at the half-assembled crib with that same heated stare that made her want to melt. She didn't know if it was good that he stared at a crib the same way he stared at her, but her mind wasn't actually functioning on most levels. It ha actually been reduced to one simple, all-encompassing thought: Must Not Jump CO.

"According to the directions, Carter, the mattress is supposed to float somewhere up here, but I can't quite figure out how to activate the anti-gravity field."

Oh, dear God. Her knees just about gave out from under her. Jack. Small space. Shirtless. Technobabble. She thought she'd died and gone to heaven. She smiled at him with a goofy smile she would have been terribly embarrassed about had she even been aware of it. "Is it hot in here?"

Somehow completely unaware of her state of mind, Jack used his discarded shirt to wipe at his forehead. "I tried to open the window, but I think I painted it shut."

She took at deep breath and tried to regain control of her senses. Although, in retrospect, thanking her lucky stars that he'd painted the window shut wasn't really in the realm of her normal state of mind. She cleared her throat and looked at the crib, reminding herself that it was probably a good idea to make sure the thing wouldn't fall apart when Cheyenne was sleeping in it. "Let me have a look."

She wound up having to take most of it apart, discovering one piece that Jack had assembled backwards that made all the difference. When she corrected it, he had a fit, pointing at the instructions she was disregarding and swearing he had done it right. She didn't care that he was acting like a baby because he was standing a foot away from her, holding up the side of the crib while she pieced it together and she had an absolutely glorious view of the abs that any man his age would envy.

"That's upside down, Carter. Look!" He kicked at the instructions where they lay ignored at his feet.

She decided she was in control enough to tease him. "Only if you have the anti-gravity model, which apparently, you couldn't afford. I guess colonels don't make what they used to."

He looked down at her, a smile playing on his lips. "You know, I could just move in here and then with the money we save on the mortgage, we could afford the high-end crib."

She knew he intended it as a joke, but at that moment, as much as she was enjoying having him there with her, his words made her breath catch in her throat. Luckily the phone rang, distracting both of them before she did something stupid like agree with him in all seriousness.

He grinned. "You know that's the base, right?"

She shook her head. "It's probably just Daniel or Janet."

"Twenty bucks says that's the base."

"If you're willing to put money on it, you probably put them up to calling. There's no way I'm taking that bet."

He winked at her, shifting the crib that she only then started to realist was probably just as heavy for him as it has been for her. "A backrub says that's the base."

"And if it's not the base?" She did not need the idea of running her hands along his muscles in her head, but she certainly did enjoy having them there.

"Then you get the backrub."

"Deal." She stood up to answer the phone, praying Jack couldn't hear the pounding of her heart.

As she left the room, she could have sworn she heard him mutter. "Either way, I win."

She couldn't bite back the smirk on her face when she returned a moment later. "I have to go to work for a little while. Something with the iris controls. It won't take me long, but trying to explain it to Walter who would then have to explain it to Siler would take years."

Jack ha set the half assembled crib down and was working on the far less daunting task of assembling the drawers for the changing table. He was grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "Whatever you say, Carter." He was gloating about being right and she figured he had every right to. If she'd been paying any attention whatsoever to anything besides his body, she would have known it was the base too.

It didn't really matter because she considered being wrong a victory. Anything that involved touching him she was taking as a win.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Driving back from the base, Carter had an odd thought. She had spent a lot of time alone in her life. Not emotionally alone, not lonely, but physically by herself. Most of her time was spent working, but when she needed to get away, to be alone, she always had her home. It stunned her to realize that she no longer had that refuge, that she might never have it again. Her space, her escape had become home to her daughter and, however temporarily, her CO as well. Even though she wasn't looking for peace and quiet at that moment, she didn't like the idea that it wasn't ever going to be available.

The drive to her house from the base wasn't a long commute, but it was long enough for her to decide that she didn't really mind losing her privacy and her empty house. It had troubled her at first, but only until she realized she was trading up - instead of somewhere to hide when she was upset, she had someone to hold and, if things worked out the way she wanted, she'd have someone to hold her as well.

The drive also took her past a strip mall which housed the largest book store she'd ever seen. Carter was self-sufficient. If there was something she didn't know, she would research it and learn everything she could. She turned into the parking lot without conscious thought. She didn't want to have to ask Jack everything or guess if he wasn't around. She headed into the store with a smile. There was nothing she couldn't learn, except French and it really hadn't been an issue after the tenth grade, if she had enough time and reference materials.

After dropping over three hundred dollars on books and lugging them into the house, she started to wonder when she was going to have time to read them. She also realized she'd been bitten by the Daniel shopping bug and looked around for somewhere to hide the books so Jack wouldn't be able to tease her. But the only place she could think of was her bedroom and she'd have to walk past the nursery, where she assumed he still was, to get them there. Resigned to her fate, she sat down on the couch, put the books on the coffee table and tried to pick on to read first. She settled on one and decided it was too quiet. She smiled at herself; peace and quiet was overrated.

"Jack? I'm home."

Jack emerged from the hall a moment later, fully dressed, much to Carter's chagrin. But the fact that he was talking to her daughter in the silliest, sweetest voice she'd ever heard made it ok. "Look! There's your mommy!"

It wasn't clear that Cheyenne knew or cared what his words meant, but Carter appreciated them. And Cheyenne did seem to like her. Unfortunately, Carter couldn't even respond before Jack saw the books.

"Gee, Carter, did you leave any for the other mommies?"

She smiled, knowing she deserved the teasing for going overboard. "I don't really care about the other mommies. Besides, they have more time to prepare."

He picked up on book before he sat next to her. It was a book on pregnancy. "I think you could have skipped this one."

She shrugged. "There are chapters in there about the baby's first few weeks of life and I didn't want to miss anything."

"Sure there are."

"Oh, shut up." Carter glared at him playfully, but he didn't notice because he had opened the book to those chapters he didn't believe existed and was reading. After a moment, he tossed the book back on the coffee table and grinned stupidly at his daughter. "Daddy would rather play with you than read boring books."

"Daddy would rather play with open canisters of nerve gas than read boring books."

Jack smiled. "Daddy has a sense of adventure."

Carter couldn't help but giggle. "Right, and mommy doesn't."

Jack thought about it for a moment and then started to laugh too. "Ok, so mommy has a sense of adventure and she likes to read boring books." His gaze turned to Carter finally. "You know, you're not going to have any time to take care of Cheyenne. You'll be too busy reading about taking care of Cheyenne."

Carter shrugged and tried to concentrate on her book, an impossible task while sitting next to Mr. Gorgeous and Baby Adorable. She glanced at Jack, who was holding Cheyenne in front of his face and blowing raspberries on her belly. Shaking her head she laughed out loud. "I think I've just lost every last bit of respect for you, Jack."

"No, you haven't." Jack looked offended as he set Cheyenne on his far side. For a heart stopping moment, she feared she'd stepped too far over the line. But then he turned his whole body to face her, sliding his hands into her hair and tilting her head back with lightning fast movements. He was grinning as he leaned over her and blew a raspberry into her neck.

She actually squealed at the overwhelming sensations - Jack looming over her, his cold, wet hair brushing her chin, his warm, strong hands in her hair, his lips on her skin.

He was laughing as he pulled back, staying in his position above her and winking. "Now you have."

She could tell he was delighted with himself, much the way she was delighted with him. But she wasn't about to let him win. She smirked at him as she managed to turn back to her book, even with him so close. "This way I'll be ready for the next one."

All traces of laughter drained from his face along with the color. His eyes grew comically wide. "The next one?" His eyes darted down to her stomach. "Are we having another one?"

She kept a straight face, letting him panic over exactly what had transpired on the base that required her attention. She knew he was envisioning all sorts of things that Thor might have decided to try. After a moment, she started to feel bad for scaring him. "That seems to be up to Thor, now doesn't it?"

He sat back and covered his face with his hands. "Don't scare me like that. You'll give an old man a heart attack."

Carter nodded at Cheyenne who was gurgling happily with their laughter. "If she didn't give you a heart attack, I certainly never will." As she turned back to her book, she realized something that caused her attention to snap right back to him. Jack wasn't covered in yellow paint. "Why is your hair wet?"

He gathered Cheyenne back into his arms, paying little attention to Carter. "Because I took a shower."

"What?" Her brain didn't even have a chance to conjure up inappropriate thoughts about Jack in her shower.

Jack looked at her, uncertainty obvious, nervous at the idea that he'd overstepped his bounds. He was so used to giving the orders, to making the rules, that he was like a fish out of water with the thought of needing permission from her. "Was I supposed to ask first?"

She took Cheyenne in her arms, fearing her baby had been traumatized. "You left her all alone out here while you took a shower? What were you thinking? What if she needed you? How could you be so selfish?"

Jack chuckled and relaxed as he put his hand on Carter's shoulder to comfort her. "Of course I didn't leave her alone. I took her in with me."

"What?" Carter practically sprang off the couch, turning to stare at him in horror. "You did what? You can't take a baby in the shower with you!"

"Carter, it's fine. People do it all the time." He was far more amused at Carter's shock than she thought he should have been. "It's better than leaving them all alone in the other room."

She quickly ran through her list of objections, trying to find one to dispute Jack's statement since she had no experience with infants to draw on. She immediately discounted her first thought that no one was taking a shower with Jack in her bathroom, or anywhere really, unless it was her because she technically didn't have a claim on him and because it wasn't the sort of thing that Samantha Carter was supposed to say. The next thing she thought of was that Cheyenne might be psychologically damaged from showering with a man, but she couldn't use that because Cheyenne didn't appear to be aware of all that much besides her own physical comfort, which, incidentally, was obviously upset because she was starting to frown and fuss in her arms.

Afraid that she'd run out of reasons and that she was taking too long to answer, she went with the next thing that popped into her head. "What if she got wet?"

Jack full on laughed at her and got up from the couch. "She's a baby, Carter, not a gremlin. She's fine. Water is about the last thing you need to fear her getting into." He disappeared into the kitchen, giving Carter ample time to feel like an idiot in private so that her face was burning red when he returned with a beer in one hand and a bottle in the other.

Cheyenne started to cry again and Carter settled her in the bassinette. She flopped down on the couch and picked up a book, rocking the bassinette with her foot. Jack was watching her with an omnipotent smirk on his face. She looked up at him and glared. "Then I guess I should read up, huh?"

Cheyenne stopped fussing when Jack gave her the bottle. Carter hated that he'd already developed an instinct of knowing what Cheyenne needed. Even knowing Jack had a baby before, Carter felt that she should have a stronger instinct since she was Cheyenne's mother. Everyone else in the world ascribed more of a connection to mothers than fathers and Carter hated even more that she lost that advantage because she'd been robbed of being pregnant.

"She smiles when she sees you, do you know that?"

Carter looked up, surprised that he wasn't gloating. She couldn't hide her smile. "She does?" According to the book in her hands, babies didn't smile at people until they were a few months old, but Carter decided that just meant Cheyenne was smarter than the rest.

He nodded, settling back down next to her and poking through the pile of books again. "I hope you bought one on back massages because you so owe me."

Carter closed the book she was holding and raised her eyebrow. "Oh, I don't need any help with that." She grinned at his startled expression. He kept baiting her; it was obvious that he wanted to play. And she wasn't about to discourage him.

Consequences.5


	13. Chapter 13

_AN: ok, so this story has been something like godot, so I decided to give you a really long part and put an end to the godot-ness of the whole thing. Enjoy!_

Chapter Thirteen

Jack's eyes widened and Carter watched as he swallowed hard. She was quite pleased with herself when he took a long sip of his beer, knowing he was using it as a chance to gather his thoughts. Then he cleared his throat, being careful not to look at her. "So, dinner?"

Carter smiled at him innocently. "You don't want your backrub?"

"Later." He stood up and went to the kitchen, but she could hear him muttering. "Something tells me I'm going to need the energy."

She'd always heard it was mean to tease, but she'd never known how much fun it was. Besides, she told herself, she wasn't teasing if she had every intention of going through with it. She followed him out to the kitchen, watching as he started dinner. She stared in awe. Not only did he know how to take care of a baby, but he could cook too. He was a keeper.

Jack turned around suddenly and stared at her.

"Please tell me I didn't say that out loud." If she did, she was taking the knife right out of his hand and doing herself in.

"Say what out loud? You didn't say anything."

"Oh, thank God." Carter closed her eyes and warned herself against thinking anymore thoughts like keeping her CO around as a servant. A very attractive servant. And a love slave. She shook her head, willing the thoughts away.

"Carter?"

She opened her eyes. "I didn't say that either, did I?"

He looked confused as he set a pile of vegetables in front of her. "Make a salad, would you?"

"Yes, sir." It was instinct - when something sounded like an order, she responded in kind. She picked up the knife to start cutting the carrots.

His hand stilled hers. "I'm sorry."

She looked up, resolving that she wasn't going to tell him that she really liked the way his hand felt over hers. In fact, if she didn't think about it, she wouldn't even have to worry about accidentally saying it. "For what?"

"That wasn't an order. I didn't mean for it to sound like one."

Of all the men she'd dated, almost all of them liked to tell her what to do. She never let them get away with it, especially if he fully expected her compliance. Jack was her CO and it was perfectly understandable that he was used to giving her orders, the same as she was used to taking them. So she really liked discovering that he didn't get off on ordering her around. She smiled at him. "Sorry, force of habit."

He didn't move his hand from hers. "You don't have to. You made lunch. I'll make dinner."

"Jack, it's ok. I can help with dinner."

He looked nervous as he turned back to the pasta. His voice was soft, lending more credence to his words. "You don't have to do what I tell you. Not here. Not like this." He glanced back at her and she swore she loved him more for it.

She grinned. "I'll remember that next time we go to the grocery store."

Rather than laughing like she'd intended, he looked even guiltier. "Were you really mad? I thought you were just kidding."

She shook her head, marveling at just how insecure such a strong, confident man could be. "No, I wasn't kidding. But I am now."

"I'm not so good at reading you, am I?"

"You've never made a mistake reading me in the field. You're not used to me outside of work. I'm sure we'll both make mistakes."

He stirred the pasta for a few minutes, deep in thought. "So if I've been dead wrong about everything you've said today, I should just assume you meant the opposite of everything I thought you meant and then we'll be on the same page."

Carter snickered as she tossed the salad. "No, because I'll never be on a page that's that complicated in a relationship. If you don't know, ask. Otherwise, we're just going to wind up fighting."

Jack went back to cooking dinner. Once carter was done with the salad, she went to check on Cheyenne. When Jack brought the food into the dining room, Carter grabbed the dishes and set their places. She didn't comment on how well they seemed to work as a team; she chalked it up to how well they'd always worked as a team. It had nothing to do with the situation.

"I meant to tell you earlier, Janet can give us a birth certificate. She'll take care of all the paperwork as soon as she gets our ok."

He seemed terribly domestic as he poured out plates of spaghetti for both of them. "You could have done that, Carter."

"I know." She felt stupid admitting it, but she felt compelled to explain herself, especially when she thought about how stupid he had to feel about misreading her. "I just thought you should be there too."

He glances up at her, his face more open than she'd ever seen, as a smile spread across his lips. "Really?"

"You are her father." She grinned, glad she'd made the right choice. "Besides, I don't know your middle name."

"Janet could have looked it up." He grinned as he got them each a bottle of water; they both knew that wasn't the point. "Patrick." Then he stood there next to his chair smiling.

She didn't know why he was staring at her. "What?"

He nodded at her chair. "Ladies first."

Manners. She chuckled as she slid into her chair. He was definitely a keeper. She glanced up, remembering that she wasn't supposed to think such things.

He was laughing softly.

"What?"

He winked at her. "You said it that time."

"What?" She thought about his words, wondering how he'd known it was the same thing. And then it hit her. "Oh, God." She dropped her head onto the table and whined. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

He was still laughing. "You told me not to." He reached out and tucked her hair away from her face where it had been doing an excellent job of hiding her red cheeks. "But I couldn't let it go the second time."

She raised her head, hating the way he pulled his hand back. "Next time I say something embarrassing, please feel free to tell me immediate so that I can run away and hide. And if you think I'm about to say something embarrassing, you can tell me to shut up. Order me to shut up, actually. That would be best."

He shrugged. "Trust me, it's just as embarrassing on this end."

"You won't even gloat. You really are perfect." She said it mostly because it was entirely true, but partly because she loved to make him blush.

He stabbed his pasta with his fork. "You haven't eaten it yet, Carter."

Fearing what his threat could possibly mean, she took a bite of her dinner. It was good, better than she would have done. And there was something rather distinct about the sauce, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She thought about it while they ate, while she surreptitiously watched him eat. She knew she should be mortified over having said something like that to him once, let alone twice, but he didn't seem to mind.

The moment she let herself get distracted, the thought occurred to her and she dropped her fork. She stood up, looking for the beer bottle he'd had earlier. She only seen him take one sip and yet she spied the bottle, sitting empty on the counter. He was grinning as she sat back down. "Jack, did you put beer in this?"

"You liked it until you figured it out!" He was adorable when he got defensive.

"I still like it. I never imagined putting beer in spaghetti sauce."

"I put beer in everything."

"And I didn't have you pegged as an alcoholic." She smiled at him, enjoying the light hearted moment. "You didn't put beer in our breakfast."

He shrugged. "You don't know that."

For a moment, she thought he was serious. But she was fairly certain he was hiding a smirk behind the roll he was eating. She picked up her own roll and launched it at him. It seemed the only appropriate response. Of course, the idea that lobbing food at her CO was an appropriate response made her giggle.

He grabbed her roll in mid-air and put it on his plate. "I won't put beer in anything else, Carter, since you obviously object to my culinary skills."

"You already know I'm impressed by the attempt at cooking, the fact that it's edible is a bonus. Don't stop on my account."

They finished their dinner in silence. Carter spent the entire time wondering if he really was ok with the blatant flirting she'd accidentally and purposefully done with him. He'd been polite and receptive and he had actually responded to her, but she knew some part of that could have had to do with Cheyenne and his fear that Carter might try to cut him out. She decided that they should both make the decisions in moving their relationship forward, if it was going to move at all. The next move would be up to him.

"Leave room for dessert, Carter."

She looked up from the second helping of spaghetti she'd been devouring. "There's dessert?"

"Of course there is!" He jumped up from the table, bringing Cheyenne in and thrusting her at Carter, who realized she wasn't being given a choice about dessert. "And there's no beer in it, I swear."

She cradled Cheyenne. "I'm starting to think your Daddy is as crazy as I am which might spell out some problems for you, kid." She looked over her shoulder at the kitchen. "So, what's for dessert?"

A moment later, Jack reappeared with two cupcakes on a plate, each one sporting two lit candles. "Cake, Carter. Cake is for dessert. That's a stupid question."

"Of course it is." She smiled placatingly, like she might smile at an armed, unmedicated mental patient. "What's the occasion?"

He looked disappointed. "It's Cheyenne's birthday. For crying out loud, you're her mother. You should know these things."

"Jack, it's not Cheyenne's birthday." She used the same voice she might use when talking to an armed, unmedicated mental patient.

"Yes, it is. She's four days old today."

"Oh, right, how could I forget?" She looked at the way Cheyenne's eyes danced when she looked at the fire, much the way Jack's did.

"See, it's much easier for both of us when you just blindly agree with me, Carter."

"Yes, it's all becoming clear now, sir."

He looked up, startled. "That wasn't an order."

"So are we having cake tomorrow too?" She leaned forward to blow out the candles before the wax melted all over the icing.

"Naturally."

"And for her one week birthday, we'll have a party, right?" She concentrated on Cheyenne rather than on Jack who was licking the icing off his cupcake. "And when she's a month old, we'll go to Disney Land. And for her first birthday, we can take her to the moon. I'm sure Thor owes us a favor, right?"

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Now you're just making fun of me."

"Never." She waited for him to go back to the icing she was pretending she wasn't watching him eat. But he just kept staring at her. "Come on, Jack, sometimes you make it so easy and I can't ever give in. Can't I laugh at you this once?"

He shrugged. "Ok, as long as that backrub is still on the table."

"Are we going to have cake everyday?"

Jack nodded. "We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow."

Carter watched his eyes cloud over and she suddenly understood why he wanted to celebrate. Because he knew every minute with Cheyenne was special. Because he knew what it was like to be robbed of those special minutes with Charlie.

She didn't want to say anything; she knew it was best to change the subject. She picked up her cupcake and took a bite. "Mom always said girls ruin your figure. I never realized why."

Jack smiled, appreciating the topic change. "You look pretty good for a woman with a four day old baby."

She swallowed the bite in her mouth, trying to tell herself he really didn't mean anything by it. He probably just assumed she wouldn't take it the wrong way. But that was no reason not to tease him. She spoke with an edge to her voice. "What about a woman without a four day old baby?"

He started to cough, realizing he'd done the dumbest thing imaginable in making an offhanded remark relating to a woman's weight. "You still look pretty good."

It was too easy. She could barely keep herself from laughing when he walked right into the trap. "Pretty good? Is that all?"

He looked up, wide-eyed and terrified that she was about to start crying. "Hot, Carter. You're hot. Beautiful, gorgeous, sexy."

She couldn't stop the laughter as he started listing flattering adjectives. Cheyenne joined in the party waving her tiny little arms in the air. She leaned down. "Daddy thinks Mommy's hot."

Jack buried his face in his hands, acknowledging defeat while Carter gloated. "I give up. There's no way to win here. Please have mercy on me, Carter."

"I'm not God, Jack." She winked at him when he finally brought his head up to eat the rest of the cupcake she offered. "But talking like that might swell my ego considerably."

He polished off her cupcake and took Cheyenne out of her arms. "Cheyenne, Mommy's being mean to Daddy. You make her stop." Cheyenne was having a good time, gurgling and waving her arms in the air. He looked at Carter, still sitting at the table and smirking over her victory. "You get to do the dishes since you're mean. And you're not getting any cake tomorrow, you know, since you're so concerned about your figure."

Carter headed for the sink with the pile of dishes. "Although, since I have to wash all these dishes, I'll probably be too tired to give you a backrub later."

"Oh, no, Mommy's playing hardball." Jack settled Cheyenne in her bassinette and joined Carter at the sink. "Hey, Carter, there's an awful lot of dishes here. Why don't I help you?"

She moved over to block the sink. "Nope. They're all mine. You're just out of luck, I'm afraid."

He stepped beside her, pushing her sideways with his hip. "No, really, it's no problem."

"I insist, Jack. After all, I am the little woman, right?" She shoved him back, retaking her place in front of the sink. She wanted to make sure he had no idea how very much she wanted to give him that back rub, to get her hands on his skin. She was pretty sure he was so blinded by wanting it that he didn't know how much she wanted it too.

"I'm not a caveman, Carter. I can help. I cooked!" He tried pushing her, but she grabbed onto the counter and wouldn't budge.

"If you cook, I clean. It's a fair division of work there."

"No, Carter, I'm going to help. I don't want to tire you out." He must have realized that she had an iron grip on the counter because he changed tactics. He moved behind her, easily reaching his long arms around her. His hips pressed hers into the edge of the counter and his face brushed against hers. "You need to save your energy."

She wanted to scream. She wanted to shove him off and act offended, if only to conceal how very much she appreciated his presence. It took all of her strength to pluck his hands off the knobs for the water, and not because he was holding on tight. "I fear I've expended all my energy having this little wrestling match. It's a matter of principle now, and I swear I'll break every last one of these dishes before I give you the satisfaction of washing a single one of them."

"Fine, Carter, whatever you say." His hands retreated from the sink and Carter very nearly cheered fro her triumph. But his face stayed pressed against hers and his hands only retreated to her waist, where they brushed under the edge of her shirt. "I'll just wait in case you change your mind."

She shivered from the contact, but she didn't break. She took a deep breath and filled the sink up with hot water, reminding herself several million times a second that she was not about to let him win. Her pride was on the line. She was not going to be the one to break; that was the whole point of the backrub. Because she knew she could get him to give. "I guess I don't need a sweatshirt then."

She knew that Jack was every bit as competitive as she was, so she should have anticipated that he wouldn't give up so easily. But as his fingers danced further under the hem of her shirt, lightly playing against her bare skin, she realized she might have to concede the round. She bit her lip and pushed her hips back against him. "Stop."

"Carter?" He wasn't sure what to do, she could tell from the waver in his voice. His fingers continued to move lightly, barely brushing her skin.

She shifted more suddenly, barely biting back the giggle. "Stop it!" But her voice came out several octaves too high and decidedly squeakier than either of them remembered.

"Carter, don't tell me you're ticklish." She felt the laughter rumble through his chest as his fingers played their merciless game.

"Stop it!" She bucked against him as his hold tightened.

"Well, now, that changes things, doesn't it?" One of his arms moved completely around her to hold her close. He used his other hand to continue searching for spots that make her squeal.

She was laughing too hard to force out words; she could barely breathe. But she squirmed and twisted and wriggled and tried her hardest to get out of his arms. It was impossible, of course; Mark had taught her at the age of three that being ticklish was a decided disadvantage in a wrestling match. It had been more than twenty years since someone had tickled her, but it had the same effect. She gasped for air as she clawed at his arms.

His fingers found a particularly sensitive spot on her side, causing her to bend forward in an attempt to get away. His upper body moved with hers, maintaining his hold. Her hips pressed back as his pressed forward and in one sobering instant, she had all the proof she needed that he wasn't just playing along.

The torture stopped as his hands moved back once again. They paused on her hips, pulling her against him hard as his mouth found the tender skin where her shoulder met her neck. She felt the heat from his body surge through her. It felt like all of her nerve endings caught fire. She sagged back against him weakly, letting her knees buckle and her mind shut down.

Consequences.11


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

His hands on her hips were the only thing keeping her off the ground. He knew it, knew he had to support her, and moved one of his arms back around her waist. The fingers of that hand found their way under her shirt, splaying against her stomach and keeping her snugly against him. The other hand went to her neck, threading through her hair and moving her head so he could have better access to her neck.

She clutched at his arm, unprepared for how overwhelming her feelings were. She leaned back, letting her head rest against his as his lips moved across her skin. She wanted to stay there forever, to let him explore her body, to give him all the control. But at the same time, she wanted more. She wanted to kiss him, to taste him, to make his knees buckle from how wonderful she could make him feel. Her desperation gave her the strength to stand once again. He let her turn to face him. He didn't move a muscle; she couldn't even be sure he noticed. His one hand was on her back after she turned, but it still kept her pressed into him. His face was still buried in her neck. It was phenomenal; it was everything she'd ever imagined. But it wasn't enough, not nearly. She reached up with shaking hands, pulling his face towards hers.

He was confused at first, his eyes opening as he followed her lead without hesitation. Her hands felt the moment when he caught on, angling his head a bit and moving toward her lips. Jack was one of those rare people who were able to completely fascinate her. Whenever she was in a room with him, it seemed like he was all that existed. He could be the whole universe for all she knew. She'd learned early on, during that first exchange with him, that she had to dissociate herself from the situation. Otherwise he would take up all of her senses. She could see him, smell him, hear him, feel him, wondering what it would be like to taste him; he could completely overwhelm her. Even when she was trying to be careful, he would occasionally catch her off-guard and she would be stunned simply by his presence.

She actually thought she would pass out from sensory overload when his tongue delved into her mouth. It was the last piece of the puzzle to being entirely consumed by him. She held onto him for dear life, willing herself to absorb every moment, every feeling. Never in her life had a kiss reduced her to such hysteria. She had to keep reminding herself that was all it was, which was amazing to her since sex with other men couldn't compare with simply kissing Jack. She wanted to cry out from the torrent of everything she was feeling.

She knew. She finally knew. What it felt like to kiss him. What it felt like to run her fingers through his hair. What it felt like to have him hold her so close she could feel every inch of his decidedly male body. What it felt like to not care if the world ended right that minute. Her feelings for him weren't some silly fantasy that had been allowed to get out of control through years of waiting and pondering. No, she really did love him. There was no way he could make her feel that way if she didn't love him. No man had ever compared because she'd never really loved any other man. Being in love, real, undeniable love, made it breathtaking.

Unfortunately, the fact that it was real meant they had to be more careful. If they did something stupid and ruined it, they could never get it back and she would never get over it. Just over twenty-four hours earlier, the idea that Jack would kiss her had been as far-fetched as Thor giving them a baby. They'd been trapped in an odd situation, breeding a familiarity that wasn't normally there - that much had become clear during their discussion while they were making dinner. They hadn't discussed what to do, what they wanted to do, what they could do. They had only acted without thinking. Granted, she'd thought about doing it, she just hadn't really thought it was a possibility so she hadn't exactly ironed out the best course of action. Jack probably hadn't put any thought into it either. She couldn't leave an important decision like that up to someone who wasn't going to think about it or to what felt good physically in the moment.

He was kissing her, holding her, with a certain desperation, like he was afraid she'd get away, like he was afraid she'd stop if he gave her a chance to think about it.

He pulled back the tiniest bit. "Stop thinking, Carter." His lips immediately reattached to hers. It wasn't an order; it was a joke. She knew it. She loved that he knew her well enough to sense the change in her participation as pieces of her mind withdrew to resolve the conundrum, pieces that he evidently preferred to be kissing him fervently.

She realized, however, that he must have put some thought into it, enough to know that she'd stop him if she was able to think which, to her, meant there had to be a damn good reason for her to stop him, even if she couldn't fathom what the reason was. But even after the thought occurred to her, it still didn't really register. It just kind of rolled around in her head like loose change in the bottom of her purse.

It was all Jack's fault, she decided. His attempt to crawl into her skin through her mouth wasn't working, so he lifted her up, sliding her onto the counter. He was able to step closer then, moving between her legs as his hands moved to hold her face. Her legs reacted exactly the way he'd obviously planned, wrapping around him without permission from her brain and anchoring him to her. She had a much better angle to reach him and wound her arms over his shoulders, pulling his mouth harder against hers as he pulled her hips tighter against his. She even had a momentary thought about appreciating how very well they worked as a team. Yeah, she thought as he continued to kiss her senseless, teamwork really was everything it was cracked up to be.

His lips slipped off hers, trailing down her neck once again. She tilted her head back, letting him nip at the skin he found while she thought about how good it felt. But as she was thinking about how good it felt, she remembered that he didn't want her to think and then she promptly remembered it probably wasn't good that he didn't want her to think.

She needed to think. It was what she did. She was good at it. If she couldn't arrive at a carefully planned, decisive answer to a question, she kept at it until she did. And she always with the carefully chosen decision, even if it wasn't the one her heart wanted her to pick.

Bad. It was bad. What, she wasn't sure. But something was bad. And she had a good idea that it was something that felt really good.

Her thoughts were slowed as Jack's hands found their way up her sides, dancing along the delicate skin that only a choice few men had ever touched. She'd certainly never imagined that her CO would ever be the next one, the one to put those others to shame.

And that, regrettably, was the thought that set off the alarm bells.

She tensed, feeling a nervous knot tightening in her stomach. Of course she'd never thought her CO would be feeling her up. Of course she'd never imagined her CO would be the one to make her body come alive like it never had. Of course not. Because that was a crazy, irresponsible thought and Samantha Carter did not suffer crazy, irresponsible thoughts well.

His whole body tensed with her, his own mind probably telling him that something was wrong. She hated herself for doing that to him, for being the one to stop it.

"Jack. Stop."

He had known. He must have. Because he pulled back immediately to look her in the eyes. His eyes were hooded, dark, half-drugged from passion. His hands were still, frozen on her waist. He said nothing. His eyes drifted closed and she could practically hear him screaming silently at her to change her mind, to not say what she was trying to find the strength to say.

"We should talk about this first."

His eyes opened and searched hers for a long time. "Why? What's the point? You want to get to know each other better? What are you afraid of?"

She wanted to agree with him, to believe her doubts were silly, to know her fears were ungrounded. But she couldn't brush them off. That wasn't who she was. She couldn't get swept up in passion and regret her mistakes later. If she made a mistake, she never wanted it to have been her own fault something she could have avoided. That was why it was so important for her to think things through.

She felt stupid, realizing that their bodies were still very much in contact even though the mood had soured. Her arms fell from his shoulders at the same time as her legs released his body. "We should think about this. Not about if we want it, but if it's a good idea, if we can really make this decision right now." The more she spoke, the more her mind found its equilibrium. She felt better about stopping him since it was becoming clear to her that not stopping him would have been a disaster. "We've been through a lot in a day, Jack." Her mind flashed to her daughter, who'd been sleeping in the next room until that moment when she started to cry. "We have Cheyenne to think about. If we make a rash decision and it doesn't work out like we think, we're still going to have a daughter to raise."

He moved to the side, propping his arms on the counter and dropping his head. "It's hardly a rash decision if it's been seven years in the making, Carter."

"It hasn't been seven years. This wasn't something we were thinking about two days ago."

"Maybe you weren't." He stood up, stepping further away. "I'm not going to stand here and try to win this argument. There's no point." He took another step. "I'm going to-"

"Jack, don't." She didn't want him to run away. She wanted to talk. She wanted him to convince her the way he was obviously convinced.

He caught her eyes. The heavy-lidded passion was gone. She was looking at her CO, her friend, once again. "I'm not going to cajole you to have sex with me, Carter." He stepped back again, landing him in the doorway. "You need to think. Go ahead. Think all you want. I need air." His voice was calm and controlled. His words weren't angry.

She heard the slamming of her front door and then the sound of the truck starting. The tires squealed as his actions betrayed the anger he'd tried to hide. Carter dropped her face into her hands, trying to will the tears away as Cheyenne wailed in the next room.

She couldn't be sure he was ever coming back.

Consequences.5


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Her legs felt wobbly as she lowered herself back to the floor. The adrenaline response was fading, leaving her body exhausted. She was devastated, even though she was the one who threw the wet blanket on the party, and she wanted to be selfish, to curl up in a ball and be miserable. But she had Cheyenne to look out for. For a moment, she wanted to resent that he'd taken off without a second thought for their infant daughter, but she knew better and chastised herself for even considering it. He knew she'd take care of Cheyenne; he still trusted her.

Cheyenne's cries hadn't subsided and Carter was thankful for the distraction. She scooped the baby into her arms, squeezing the girl as tightly as she dared and rocking her gently.

"It's ok, Cheyenne, we'll be ok." Her voice wavered, but she knew her words were true as she spoke them. Sitting down on the couch, she cradled the tiny girl in the crook of her arm. "He'll come back soon, Chey. Daddy won't leave you."

Her daughter's big blue eyes regarded her thoughtfully as her wailing gradually died out. The expression reminded Carter of the one Jack always wore when he was trying to decide if she was telling the truth or just telling him what he wanted to hear. After a pensive moment, Cheyenne popped two of her fingers in her mouth and started sucking on them.

"Are you hungry? Is that it?" Carter got up once again, somehow innately knowing how to prepare the bottle one-handed while keeping Cheyenne safe in the other arm. She gave the bottle to the baby and watched as the girl drank happily. "See? Mommy can take care of you. You don't have to be scared." Switching off the lights in the kitchen and dining room, Carter returned to the living room.

When Cheyenne was finished her bottle, she dropped off to sleep once again. Carter picked up her book and started reading. It was only a few minutes before the silence started to get to her. She switched on the TV, realizing she'd never been bothered by the quiet before. She turned off the TV a second later, followed that by turning off the lamp as well, and then stared into the darkness. The house seemed different without him. It seemed empty. It didn't seem like a home anymore; it was just a house.

She sat there for a long time in the dark, seeing nothing but Jack's face as he'd turned to leave. She didn't want to feel like the bad guy, like she'd been mean to drive him away. She'd only done what she thought was right. She hated that he was angry at her for it, hated that the anger was probably covering deep hurt, hated that he didn't understand why she'd stopped him, that she felt guilty even though she doubted that had been his intention.

By eleven, she'd one all the thinking she could do. She knew he would come back; he wasn't about to abandon his daughter. And she actually appreciated that he'd left rather than yell - because it would have upset Cheyenne and because she didn't want to face him when he was that mad at her. Her father had always been the type to scream rather than run and she remembered hiding in a closet whenever her parents fought, wishing her father's voice didn't sound so loud and frightening. It was better for Cheyenne to never know what anger sounded like, certainly not until she was much older.

She'd figured out a plan. They would decide about Cheyenne first - calmly and rationally. Then they could consider their own situation. Cheyenne had to come first and Carter was sure Jack would understand that.

She didn't want to leave Cheyenne alone in the living room during the night and she knew trying to drag the bassinette to her bedroom would result in scraped paint that she couldn't ask Jack to repair. Cheyenne was too little to sleep in her crib, which limited the solutions to the problem. Carter didn't want to sleep on the couch because she knew Jack would come home and she didn't want him to think, even for a second, that she was waiting for him. It would just make her look stupid and get his hopes up that she'd changed her mind. It was the perfect opportunity for her to set boundaries on their personal relationship - they could fight and he could get mad, but she wasn't going to be ruled by whether or not he was mad at her.

She picked Cheyenne up, amazing herself that she didn't wake her daughter in the process. Cheyenne was just going to sleep in her bed. Cheyenne was too little to go anywhere and she would be so close that Carter wouldn't even have to get up to check on her. Just in case, Carter built a barrier along the edge of the bed with pillows and blankets to keep Cheyenne from getting far it she suddenly developed the ability to crawl several months early.

She changed into her pajamas, closed the door halfway so that the light from the hall would allow her to see Cheyenne without keeping her awake, and snuggled into bed. She leaned over to place a light kiss on her daughter's forehead and then closed her eyes.

She awoke with a start, an oddly familiar sensation of someone watching her pulling her from sleep. Fear caused her heart to pound, the rush of blood in her ears seeming so loud she was afraid she'd give herself away.

But before she could open her eyes or react to the fear, she heard a familiar voice, one she trusted her above all else. "Shh, go back to sleep." The soft voice was accompanied by a light brush of fingers against her cheek. Her instincts told her to obey and she did, relaxing almost instantly.

Her brain slowly registered that they were fighting, that he wasn't supposed to be in her bedroom, and her eyes snapped open, partially confused, partially anger, partially scared. But she only saw his hand as he pulled the door shut behind him. She sat up, her first thought being to chase him down and pound him for having the audacity, considering what had happened between them hours before, to come into her bedroom while she was sleeping. But then her eyes fell on the empty spot beside her and she knew he'd only been checking on the baby.

Curiosity put her on her feet, creeping down the hall toward the living room. She didn't know what she was looking for, what she was expecting, and she blamed it on the fact that she was half asleep on her feet. As she passed the room that had once been her office and had since become Jack's bedroom, she saw the disheveled blanket on the bed and the clothes he'd been wearing in a crumple heap on the floor. It was very early in the morning and the sun was starting to rise. It made her happy in ways she couldn't explain to know he'd been back for a while, to know he'd been sleeping in the next room, to know that he had come home.

She stopped at the edge of the hall, her oddly detached mind looking at the mess of things they still had to return and wondering if they shouldn't just keep them. She looked at the pile of books she'd bought and knew Jack had been right; she'd never find the time to read them. She saw the empty bassinette in the middle of the living room floor and knew they were just going to have to decide whose room to put it in because it couldn't stay there. For some reason, it didn't quite feel like her house. It almost felt like a dream.

She heard his voice and her eyes finally zeroed on his outline, all she could see of him standing in the dark kitchen. He was looking out the window, talking softly to his daughter. It seemed like a private moment, but she had to know what he was saying. She moved across the living room, hoping he wouldn't catch her reflection in the window as he watched the sun rise.

As she approached the doorway, she noticed something on the counter; a reflection of the living room light on something shiny and metal. She squinted until she could make out the shapes, finally recognizing the dishes she'd left in the sink, washed and dried on the counter. She wanted to cry all over again. She felt awful for hurting him and receiving such a gesture of acceptance in return.

She pressed herself against the wall, willing him not to see her until she could hear his soft whisper. She knew it was something important, something that she really needed to hear.

"I'm not going to lose her. Not now. Not after everything we've been through. I'm not going to mess this up."

Her heart flipped over in her chest and her knees nearly gave out again. She wanted to run to him and hold him close, but at the same time, she knew she'd made the right decision. She wasn't going to mess it up either.

His head bent down to drop a kiss on Cheyenne's head. "I love you."

Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed his reflection. He wasn't looking at Cheyenne. He was looking at her.

Consequences.4


	16. Chapter 16

_AN: This is a bit of an emotional ride, but the end is near! Another chapter or two and we'll be off on our next adventure._

Chapter Sixteen

It was her turn to flee. She stepped backward, already running before she turned around. She closed herself in her bedroom, leaning on the door and listening for the sounds of him coming after her. There were none.

There was no reason to panic, she told herself. She knew he loved her. She loved him. It had shocked her to hear it, spoken so calmly and honestly. She'd thought he wouldn't be ready; it turned out that she was the one who wasn't ready.

She let out a breath, trying to think it through, trying to figure out what she wasn't ready for about it. She came up with nothing. It wasn't that she couldn't trust him. She knew she could be completely vulnerable in front of him and he would never think any less of her or do anything to hurt her. It wasn't that she didn't love him. She'd already decided that earlier when the need for his touch replaced her need for air.

The only thing was that she hadn't expected it. It didn't scare her. It wasn't anything new. She simply hadn't been expecting him to be at the same place. She'd been assuming he'd be dragging his feet. She felt like an idiot. She was used to handling surprises better than running away.

She opened the door, took a deep breath, and headed back down the hall. He was sitting on the couch, staring at Cheyenne in the bassinette, and she felt the crushing weight of guilt when he looked up at her, too surprised to hide his confusion.

"I didn't think I'd see you for a while."

"Neither did I." She sat down in the armchair adjacent to the couch and pulled her knees into her chest. "But then I realized I hadn't learned anything I didn't already know." She dared to glance up at him. "I just wasn't expecting to hear it."

His perplexed look slowly faded into a grin. "Remind me not to startle you." He looked down at his hands which were curled into tight fists at his side, revealing that everything wasn't back to normal yet. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"I should have explained myself better. I couldn't think straight."

"You either?" He smiled at her as his hands uncurled. "You didn't need to explain yourself. I just needed a cold shower."

"I was thinking about-"

"Cheyenne, I know. I should have been too."

She smiled, a hint of mischief shining in her eyes. "I won't mind if you tell me I have the power to completely eliminate all traces of good sense in your brain."

"Oh, good, cause I wasn't sure how long I was going to be able to keep that from you."

She giggled. "I know it seems ridiculous, but I want to take it slow. We need to decide how we're going to raise our daughter before we suddenly have to decide on something we've left unresolved for years."

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. He stared at her with the most serious expression she'd ever seen. "I disagree."

Once again, his words caught her off-guard. While there were plenty of times he didn't like what she told him, there were far fewer incidents when he disagreed with her. "What do you mean?"

"I think we need to decide about us first, Carter. Because that's going to have a huge impact on how we raise our daughter."

She hadn't even thought of it like that. It made sense - there was no point in working out joint custody arrangements if they were going to be together. Then again, they'd barely been together a day and they were already fighting. "It's going to be a while before we actually know how things will work out with us, if we decide to try. I don't think we can put her on hold until we work it out, Jack."

"We don't have put anything on hold, Carter. I know how I feel about you and I'm pretty sure you feel the same. Why are you so sure it won't work?"

"I never said that."

"You sure are hellbent on coming up with a contingency plan for when it doesn't work out."

"How long have we been in the same house, Jack? How many arguments have we already had? Do you think this is a good sign?"

He sat back on the couch, a resigned expression on his face as though he knew he would wind up giving in to her but he also knew she was wrong. "I'm not sure the last day has been the easiest one we've ever put it, Carter. Maybe it shouldn't be used as the litmus test of whether or not we can stand to be around each other on a permanent basis."

She stared at him for a long moment before her face broke into a grin. "I never thought I'd see the day that you used the phrase litmus test in a sentence."

He grinned back, but he wasn't derailed by her comment. "I think we should give it a try."

"And what if it doesn't work?"

He shrugged. "Then it doesn't work. At least we tried."

"At least we tried? Our whole lives will be irrevocably changed."

"Carter, I've never seen you back down from a challenge. So it's not easy. What is?"

She looked away, shaking her head. "We can't. We have a child to think about. What seems brilliant and inspired now-"

"It seems brilliant and inspired?" His grin was infectious and she felt the corners of her mouth turning up to mirror his. He sat up once again, scooting over on the couch until he was as close to her as he could get. "Marry me."

Her eyes widened. Her heart pounded. She couldn't believe he'd just asked her that. "What?"

He reached out to hold one of her hands in both of his. "Marry me, Carter."

She knew he loved her. She knew she loved him. But she couldn't believe that his proposal was for any other reason than Cheyenne. She knew getting married for the sake of their child would be a mistake. She shook her head, hating the way a lump formed in her throat at the idea of saying no to something she wanted so much. It was the hardest thing she'd ever done. "No."

"What do you mean no?" He sounded shocked. He sounded confused. He sounded hurt. "You can't mean that." He squeezed her hand. "Say yes, Carter."

"Are you ordering me to marry you?"

He jumped up from the couch and paced across the room. "No, of course not!"

"Well, then, you asked and I answered." She stood up, noticing that Cheyenne was awake and squirming in her bassinette.

"Carter." He crossed the room again and reached for her hand. "I want to talk to you."

She shook her head, pulling out of his grasp and lifting Cheyenne up as she started to cry. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"I do. I think I deserve an explanation."

She rocked Cheyenne gently, trying to soothe her daughter's cries when she felt like joining her. "So do I."

"For what?" His tone was harsh, but Carter knew he'd get over it once he realized she was right.

"Why would you do this? Why would you insult me like this?"

"What?" He approached her, turning her to face him. He looked shocked. "How am I insulting you? I just asked you to marry me. I should be the injured party here."

"You only asked me because you want Cheyenne to have a family. You didn't mean it. You don't want to marry me." She tried to turn away, but his hands on her shoulders stopped her.

"I do want Cheyenne to have a family. But I want you too, Carter."

She tried to turn away again and that time Jack let her go. Cheyenne continued to wail as Carter hugged her close.

Jack dejectedly threw himself back on the couch. "I guess you were right, Carter. We should decide what we're going to do with her because this thing with us is obviously never going to work."

"Here, maybe you can get her to stop." She handed over the wailing infant to Jack and disappeared back to her bedroom. She refused to cry in front of him over how easily he gave up.

She didn't know what she wanted him to say. She didn't know what she wanted him to do. She knew he loved her, but she didn't want his sense of duty to rope him into a marriage that he would later regret. As she curled up in bed, she decided she would hate Lofn and Thor. It was all their fault. They ruined everything.

The need for coffee and food forced her to reemerge a few hours later. Cheyenne was quiet, slobbering on the pink rattle she'd decided she liked the day before. All the stuff they'd decided to return was missing. Jack was sitting on the couch, reading and doing his best to pretend he didn't notice her. There was already coffee made, but judging from Jack's silence, she knew it wasn't a peace offering. She poured herself a cup and made herself some toast and then sat down at the kitchen table and tried to pretend that silence wasn't worse when there was someone else there.

A few minutes later, Jack popped his head in. "I'm going to go out for a little while." By the time Carter looked up to acknowledge him, he was gone.

He was back an hour later, finding her on the couch and tossing a catalog on the coffee table in front of her. His credit card bounced once on the book, once on the table, and then fluttered under the edge of the couch. "I took everything back that you didn't want. Pick out whatever you want." He turned to go back to the bedroom she didn't imagine he'd be staying in for long.

She was pissed off too and she didn't feel like putting up with his mood in addition to her own. She threw the credit card at him, almost thankful that it hadn't actually hit him. "I don't want your money, Jack."

"I don't have anything else to give you." He didn't stop walking.

The next week followed much the same pattern, with them stubbornly avoiding each other as much as possible while still living in the same house. Carter was pretty sure he was trying to get her to throw him out, which she decided would give him the chance to refuse to be cut out of his daughter's life, so she wasn't giving him the satisfaction. She hated how things were, how he was acting, how her own behavior had contributed to the state of affairs, but in the end, she appreciated the help of having him there more than she wanted the peace of having him gone.

Cheyenne's good behavior had stopped too and she spent most of the time she was awake screaming. She'd also learned the painful fun of pulling the hair of whoever was holding her. Janet assured them that there was nothing physically wrong with the baby, that her temperament was just irritable and that there was nothing they could do besides wait for her to outgrow it.

One afternoon she picked up the phone to call the base, to check in like she normally did. She heard Daniel's voice on the other end and she went to replace the phone in the cradle, but something in Daniel's tone caught her attention. She slipped her hand over the mouthpiece and listened in.

"So you're living together?"

Jack sounded annoyed and Carter was surprised he bothered to answer. "For now. For Cheyenne."

"Don't do that, Jack. Don't use her as an excuse."

Jack's moment of silence screamed a warning to Carter, but he surprised her again by answering. "I'm not using her as an excuse, Daniel. It's true."

Daniel sounded like he was laughing, which seemed odd to Carter because there'd been no laughter in her house for what felt like forever. "And you don't think that's the slightest bit convenient?"

"Convenient? Hell, no, it's not convenient. It's damn near the most inconvenient thing that's ever happened to me." His angry words brought tears to her eyes, but she couldn't hang up, she couldn't walk away. She knew that Jack would be more open with Daniel. Jack and Daniel were friends on a level that wasn't complicated by feelings between them. It made their communication so much easier. Jack's voice was softer when he continued. "It's changing what we had. It's different now."

"Is that so bad?" She could hear the smile in Daniel's voice as he completely missed what Jack was telling him.

"It's not like that, Daniel." His voice held another warning, one that Daniel actually picked up on.

"What happened?"

"It all fell apart."

"Jack, you two didn't just fall apart. Something happened. What? Maybe I can help."

Jack snickered, a bitter, hard sound. "I asked her to marry me and she said no. Can you help with that?"

Daniel's silence revealed how truly unprepared he was for that truth. "I'm sorry, Jack."

"Yeah, so am I. She's not speaking to me. She won't even look at me."

"Jack, are you speaking to her?" Daniel's question was hardly that; all three of them knew he already knew the answer when he asked it.

"No."

"Then you can't really blame her, can you?"

Jack was quiet for a long time and when he spoke, his voice was raw. "I'm afraid she's going to throw me out and not let me near Cheyenne. Daniel, I can't live through that again. I can't lose them both. It'll kill me." The honesty in his voice made Carter's breath catch in her throat. She hated that he couldn't be that honest with her and she hated that she'd made him think he couldn't be that honest with her.

"Jack, Sam would never do that to you."

"It's so close to what I want - being here with her, with our daughter - but it's just off enough to be completely wrong. It's not fair."

"Life isn't fair, Jack. But you've got a woman who loves you and a healthy baby girl and that seems like a hell of a lot to me."

Carter wanted to hear the rest, to know how Jack would react to the truth of the words spoken by a man who'd lost his wife and any chance of children with her, but Cheyenne started fussing and Carter knew her hand wouldn't block that noise. She replaced the phone before she could be found out. As she tried to calm the baby, she mulled over what she'd overheard. She'd been wrong about the reason behind Jack's proposal. He wouldn't have lied to Daniel.

She rocked Cheyenne in her arms, half deafened by the wailing. "I messed up, baby. I messed up bad." She turned around, startled to see Jack in the hallway.

"Is she all right?" He'd responded to Cheyenne's cries, even though they'd both learned there was little they could do to quiet them.

Carter nodded, not trusting her voice. She didn't know if he'd heard her and she didn't know, if he had, if he understood.

He went to the kitchen and got a bottle, hoping that would make a dent. "You know, if I screamed at the top of my lungs for a week, I'd be hoarse."

She took the bottle he handed her and offered it to Cheyenne. After a week of not saying much of anything to him, there were a million things that came to mind. Unfortunately, none of them worked their way out of her mouth before he turned and walked away.

Consequences.9


	17. Chapter 17

_AN: Holiday Weekends Quick Updates! Enjoy!_

Chapter Seventeen

Three days later and Janet had all but banned them from the infirmary. Cheyenne continued to cry hysterically, keeping both Jack and Sam from getting more than a few minutes sleep at a time. They'd gone back to maintaining silence between them, each rationalizing that it was safer than conversation. They took shifts, one of them attempting to sleep for a few hours, while the other tried to quiet Cheyenne. The only peace was when she was eating or the few blissful minutes when the poor thing drifted off to sleep.

After three days of very little sleep, Carter was holding a very loud infant and trying to heat a bottle for her. She could barely keep her eyes open, wondering how Cheyenne could possibly still have the energy to keep wailing. Half asleep and totally exhausted, she offered the bottle to Cheyenne, who eagerly sucked at it.

For half of a second.

Then she let out an ear-piercing shriek, the likes of which Carter had never heard. She dropped the bottle right out of her hand and nearly dropped the baby.

"Jack!" She ran to his room, throwing open the door. "Jack!"

He sat up, dazed from the lack of sleep and the matched pair of screaming females in his room. "What?"

"I think I scalded her. I forgot to check the bottle before I gave it to her!"

"Oh my God!" He was on his feet in a second. "How hot was it?"

Carter was hysterical, hearing her baby's cries and knowing she'd caused them. "I don't know. I just took it off the stove. We have to take her to the hospital."

"Why didn't you check it? Didn't you notice it was hot?" He was leading the way back to the kitchen, where there were at least some lights on.

"I don't know." She held Cheyenne tightly, wishing she could make time go backwards.

Jack squatted down, carefully testing the bottle with two fingers to see how hot it was. He came up with it a moment later. "Carter?"

"What are you doing? We have to get her to a hospital!"

He turned around, bravely testing the side of the pan before submerging his whole hand in it. "Carter?"

"What?" She turned to look at him, registering that he was far too calm.

"The bottle is ice cold. The water is ice cold. You didn't turn the stove on."

"You mean she's ok?" She looked at Cheyenne, who didn't seem to be screaming quite so loudly.

"She probably didn't enjoy freezing cold formula, but I think she's fine." He was smiling as he looked at them.

She felt like an idiot, tears still making their way down her cheeks. "I was so scared."

And in an instant, he was in front of her, pulling both of them into a hug. "Shh. It's ok. Everything's fine." He rubbed her back and she sagged into him as the adrenalin wore off. "I think you need some sleep, Carter."

She pulled back to look him in the eyes and nodded. "We all do." Glancing down, she realized that Cheyenne's cries had stopped and that she was staring up at them. "Oh, now you stop crying." Cheyenne gurgled at her.

"I think she got what she wanted."

Carter looked up, realizing Jack's arms were still wrapped around her. "What?"

"She doesn't like it when we fight."

Carter wanted to dispute his words, but she realized they were true. Cheyenne had been miserable at the grocery store, when they'd been arguing over what to buy. Cheyenne had started crying when Jack stormed out following their little interlude in the kitchen. And Cheyenne had been inconsolable for the previous ten days when they hadn't been speaking.

"How could she know?"

He shrugged. "She does."

Carter shook her head, refusing to admit something so intangible and unscientific even though she believed it was true. "You need sleep more than I do apparently." Admitting that it upset Cheyenne when they fought would mean they would have to stop fighting. Which would mean they would both have to deal with their feelings and with each other.

Jack smiled as he released his hold. "You know, all that perfection made you a little overbearing at times. I like seeing you frazzled."

"What?" She liked being calm and cool and controlled and unflappable. She thought he liked that about her too.

"You're adorable when you're frazzled, Carter."

Her mouth opened and closed uselessly as she tried and failed to come up with something to say. They hadn't spoken in over a week and he was suddenly back to normal, back to teasing her, without having gotten the apology she knew he deserved.

He winked. "And speechless too. I get extra bonus points for rendering you speechless."

"I'm sorry." She looked away from his eyes, from the intense emotion she saw there. "This is hard."

His hands came up and squeezed her shoulders. "It's hard for me too."

"I know." She saw Cheyenne, her tiny mouth stretched wide open in a yawn, exhausted from ten days of screaming to reunite her parents. "We can do this."

"Yes, we can." He moved behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders again and steering her to her bedroom. "After we get some sleep."

She stopped in the doorway when Jack turned into his room. "Jack?"

He looked back at her, his expression hopeful. "Yeah?"

The familiar guilt settled around her. "What if I'm not good enough?" She was referring to her distracted attempt at childcare, at how easily she could have hurt Cheyenne with a hot bottle, but also at how easily she'd hurt him.

He smiled gently. "She's lucky to have you." He turned away and closed the door behind him, leaving Carter to wonder if he'd understood her unspoken question. She hadn't moved an inch when he opened the door a moment later. "There's no one better out there, Carter." His eyes found hers and she knew he had understood. "Good night."

She smiled back. "Night, Jack."

The fact that they had made peace of some sort gave her the courage to voice a concern she'd been dealing with silently for a week and a half. He was attempting to make something edible out of a slew of ingredients she wouldn't even consider putting in the same pan. She was sitting at the table, feeling well rested for the first time in a week. Cheyenne was sucking on her rattle.

"Um, Jack?"

He glanced at her, revealing the flour he'd gotten all over his face. "What?"

She fought back the laugh that threatened. "The nursery is on the same side of the house as my bedroom."

He turned back to his culinary masterpiece and added half a bottle of beer to the mixture. "So?"

"I noticed last week that it gets very hot in there from the sun in the afternoon."

Jack was distracted momentarily as the pot caught fire and he was forced to throw the whole thing in the sink. He threw the cabinet door open, grabbed the cereal, and sat down across from her. "So?" He crunched on a handful of dry cereal and Carter wondered what they were going to do when Cheyenne got to the dry cereal stage. She'd probably have to battle her daddy for her food.

"So, I don't think it will be very comfortable for Cheyenne and particularly not conducive to her napping, if it's bright and hot."

He set the box on the table and folded his arms over his chest. "Why do I suspect that this conversation is going to end with a request that involves painting and moving furniture?"

She grinned and helped herself to a handful of cereal. "Because you're a very smart man?"

"That is categorically untrue."

She looked at the steaming pan in the sink. "Because you don't want to wind up with Cheyenne flambé?"

He stood up with a sigh. "I'm going." He paused in the doorway. "Unless you want to go get a different wallpaper border that has geographical consistency."

"No, that border is fine." She grinned at Cheyenne who was contemplating her daddy with drool running down her mouth. As soon as Jack was out of range, she winked at her daughter. "Yeah, I feel that way about him too."

Once the painting and papering had been done, Carter offered to help with moving the furniture. Jack waved her off. "No, no, I've got it. Go read or something."

"Are you mad?"

He looked up from the bed he was disassembling to fit through the door. "Is Cheyenne crying?"

"I can help, Jack." There was a lot more involved the second time around because of the stuff she had set up in her office. She felt bad that he thought he had to move it all himself.

"No, really. I want you to be very well rested."

She folded her arms over her chest and enjoyed the view of Jack, shirtless and sweaty once again. "Why?"

He grinned at her and she suddenly had the distinct impression he knew full well how much she enjoyed him with his shirt off. "Because I'm getting my back rub this time."

Consequences.5


	18. Chapter 18

_AN: A bit of resolution for you... but not too much. A couple more chapters are coming. And please, if you don't like this story, feel free to stop reading at any time. Thanks!_

Chapter Eighteen

She hadn't seen that one coming. In fact, with the delicacy of their new-found peace, she was afraid to give voice to the teasing. She decided it was different for him to flirt because she'd been the one to back away from him repeatedly. He hadn't changed his mind over and over again. He wasn't running hot and cold on her. He'd made his feelings clear and he'd stuck with them. She realized that it was her response that would determine what happened from there, that it had always been her response that decided the next move.

She smiled, too nervous to encourage anything intimate, but not wanting to rebuff his attempt to return them to where they had been. "You certainly deserve one after all this."

He smiled back as he finished with the bed and moved one piece of it across the hall. He came back a moment later and nodded at the desk. "If you don't mind, you might want to unhook the computer. I'm not so good with those things."

She nodded, mutely setting about detaching pieces from the CPU. Her theory was proven true; when she hadn't flirted back, he'd immediately shifted back to being serious. The problem with that was she had no idea how to give a back rub that didn't wind up being intimate. She knew he'd take a shower when he was done moving all the furniture and she decided she'd do some research then. Even if it didn't end with them in bed, she still knew she could give him the best back rub he'd ever gotten.

As soon as she finished with the computer and hauling the pieces into the other room, she helped Jack move the desk. It wasn't so big that they had to take it apart, but it still took both of them to move it. As she was reassembling the computer, Jack continued to move pieces of the bed.

"Did you ever look through that catalog?"

She looked up, having no idea what he was talking about. "What catalog?"

"The one from the baby store. Did you decide what you wanted to get?"

She shook her head. She'd been so angry at him when he'd given it to her that she didn't want to think about it. "I'd rather go to the store and pick things out. I like to see them first."

"We can do that tomorrow, if you want." There was uncertainty in his voice, as though he wasn't sure that he was invited.

She smiled. "You're just afraid I'll come home with baby fatigues."

He laughed out loud. "Among other things."

She was pleased with herself for making him laugh and made a mental note to see if his credit card was still in the hallway where she'd thrown it. "We're not buying anything with a princess motif."

"Aw, come on." He looked truly heartbroken.

"My parents put me in awful dresses my whole life and I'm not doing that to my child. I was never supposed to do anything but sit in a chair and make sure they didn't get dirty."

Jack stopped his work on reassembling the bed and looked at her incredulously. "You're kidding, right?" She shook her head. "That doesn't really sound like you."

"You've only known me seven years and you already know that. I was fourteen before my parents figured out that putting me in a dress wasn't going to stop me from climbing trees."

He chuckled. "How about we make a compromise? We buy her adorable little princess dresses, but we don't get mad at her if she gets them dirty."

"I guess I can live with that." She finished with the computer and stood up. "Are you sure you don't want me to help?"

His eyes twinkled. "I believe I've made my reasoning quite clear."

She couldn't help but blush at the way he smiled. "In that case, I'm going to go check on our little princess."

As soon as she checked that Cheyenne was still sleeping soundly, she opened up her laptop and googled back massages. She thought there was a problem when her computer thought about it for a long time. And then the page opened up, revealing over four million hits. She laughed at herself and her stupidity. Baby care, she thought, that was something she could look up on the internet; back rubs, however, were best researched at the book store.

She heard a thud and then a muffled curse from Jack. She leaned into the hallway to make sure she could hear him moving. "Watch your mouth in front of the princess." He only laughed in response. She really did want to help, but she suspected he'd chase her right out of the room.

She decided to call Daniel to check in. She hadn't talked to him in days, even though she knew that Jack had. Daniel amused her, hedging around the idea that she and Jack weren't getting along without actually saying it. He knew she would be mad that they'd been talking about her. He had no idea she already knew. She assured him that they were fine. He was quiet for a minute and when he spoke, Carter realized why he'd needed to gather the nerve.

"He said he proposed, Sam."

Her mouth fell open for a moment as she realized that Daniel really could be quite blunt when he needed to be. "Yes, he did, Daniel."

"And you said no."

"You should understand, Daniel, that he proposed in response to me saying I wanted to take it slow."

"Oh." More quiet where Carter could see Daniel making faces as he turned the idea over in his head. "Maybe he thought you wanted to take it slow because you weren't sure about him being serious."

"I wanted to take it slow because of precisely what happened when he proposed. We had a huge fight and didn't speak for a week and a half." She sat down on the couch, wondering why she hadn't called Janet. Men were impossible to talk to.

"Look, Sam, I'm sure you guys have things to work out and I respect that. I'm sure you've got issues about this too." He paused, letting Carter know he thought he'd said too much, and in so doing, revealed to her that he'd discussed it with Jack more than once. "I'm just going to say this and lay it out there for you. Jack can be difficult to comprehend, Sam, I know that, but you have to understand that he's thinking of you, of both of you. The proposal may have seemed spurious, but I don't think it was."

"I know that. I wasn't ready for it. It hasn't been an easy two weeks here, Daniel. I feel like my whole world turned upside down. I'm trying to hold on to anything I can, but everything keeps changing." As she spoke, she realized her words were going to go back to Jack. Not because Daniel would betray her confidence, but because he was trying to translate Jack to Sam and vice versa. She smiled, thinking they should keep him around to interpret.

"He loves you, Sam. Just remember that."

"I know that too, Daniel. Thanks." She hung up and took a deep breath. She was actually feeling a little better; time was exactly what she needed to get used to the changes. She closed her eyes and thought about making dinner.

But a brilliant flash of white light caused her eyes to pop back open. Cheyenne woke up instantly, screaming her displeasure. Thor stood before her, blinking uncertainly while he took in his surroundings.

"Jack!" She grabbed for Cheyenne, fearing that Thor was there to hurt her or steal her away.

Jack appeared a second later, instinct causing him to respond to the terrified shriek. He didn't see Thor right away. He only saw Carter looking at something in terror. "Carter?"

She darted past Thor to get to Jack's side. It was when Thor turned to watch her that Jack noticed him. Jack's arm reached out, pulling Carter and Cheyenne behind him. "You can't have her back."

Thor blinked again. "I offer my apology for disturbing you in your home. When I made the journey here, I expected to find you both at Stargate Command."

"What do you want?" Jack reached behind him, finding Carter's hand and grasping it. Thor had been a friend once, but neither trusted him any longer where their daughter was concerned.

"I came to apologize for my sudden departure. I have devoted my life to military pursuits and I was not aware of the level of upset the creation of your offspring would cause."

Jack relaxed the slightest bit, but kept Carter and Cheyenne behind him. "Saw the error of your ways, did you?"

"When I saw your reactions, I thought it prudent to give you time to digest the news. I also sought out additional knowledge in the area of human familial relations."

Jack turned toward Carter. "Huh?"

She leaned forward. "He looked up family in a human-to-Asgard dictionary."

"Oh, right, that's what I thought."

Thor stepped back, perhaps realizing that his presence was being viewed as a threat. "Actually, Major Carter, I consulted with my wife Sif. She is an expert in the area of human culture."

Jack was dumbfounded for a moment. "You're married? You have a wife?"

Thor nodded once. "I am. I do." His stoic face seemed to soften the slightest bit. "Many, many cloning generations ago, Sif had beautiful golden hair much like Major Carter's."

Jack peeked at Carter. "Is he hitting on you?" When Carter only bit back a smile in response, Jack returned to making sense of what Thor was saying. "But I thought you guys didn't - um -" He shook his head, finding his mind devoid of any polite euphemism for having sex. "What's the point?" A slap to the back of his head reminded him that the woman he'd proposed to two weeks earlier was behind him. "Ow. Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"Our marriage revolves around enjoying one another's company and companionship, much the way you and Major Carter do."

Jack covered his face with his hands. "Oy."

Carter dared to step out from behind Jack, deciding Thor posed no threat to Cheyenne. "You thought we were married, Thor?"

"I believed that the amount of personal concern you show for one another's safety and well-being indicated a level of intimacy the Asgard equates with a marriage union. I understand now that marriage in your culture is far more complicated."

Jack looked at Carter and shrugged. She smiled. "Kind of makes it a little easier to understand why he thought we wouldn't mind a baby, Jack."

"They still could have asked." Jack reached for Cheyenne and approached Thor, squatting down to Thor's level. "We named her Cheyenne."

Thor looked the child over, although Carter had the impression he was doing it more out of respect for Jack than interest in the baby. "This child has an impressive genetic structure. You should be proud."

"Well, we didn't really have much to do with it."

Carter approached them, not quite ready to forgive Thor for the callous way he'd considered destroying Cheyenne, but at the same time understanding he hadn't meant anything by it. "Or much say in the matter."

Thor nodded to her. "Your permission was not sought and the Asgard Council is endeavoring to find a suitable gift in exchange for continued friendship with your government. However, there was no genetic manipulation or modifications performed on the genetic samples. Your genes will combine naturally to form genetically advanced offspring."

Jack managed to land on his ass without dropping Cheyenne. "Wow."

Carter just stared, trying to make sense of the words without being full of herself. It was one thing to think they would produce better children than anyone else in the world; it was entirely different when the Asgard told her it was true. She sat down on the floor next to Jack. "Yeah, wow." She looked up at Thor. "As for that peace offering you're trying to think up, I have a list."

Thor nodded again. "I will return at a later date to discuss possibilities." And in typical Asgard fashion, Thor disappeared in another blinding flash.


	19. Chapter 19

_AN: Ok, so there's not much left... probably two more parts after this!_

Chapter Nineteen

Jack turned to grin at her with his trademark dopey grin and waggled his eyebrows. "So, what do you say we go make more genetically advanced offspring?"

Carter smiled at him, appreciating his humor for diffusing the tension. "I know all parents think their kids are special, but Cheyenne really is." She giggled. "I wonder if they make annoying bumper stickers that say 'I'm proud of my genetically advanced child.'"

"You should put that on the list for Thor. Bumper stickers." He handed Cheyenne to Carter and stood up, offering Carter his hand to pull her to her feet. "Besides, with your brains and your looks, how could she not be special?"

"What about your looks?" She couldn't stop herself from looking over him suggestively. It was just too much fun to tease him.

He grinned. "So was that a yes to the-" He jerked his thumb toward the hall. But before Carter had the chance to get nervous, he winked at her. "I'm almost finished. Got any ideas for dinner?"

Carter settled Cheyenne in her bassinette. "I was thinking of making something, but then I remembered that I don't particularly want you dead. We could order pizza."

"Sounds good." With that he disappeared back toward the recently swapped guest room and nursery.

By the time the pizza arrived, Carter hadn't heard another peep from Jack. She kept expecting to hear the shower running, but it never came. She slid the pizza into the oven to keep it warm and decided she should check on Jack's progress, considering he'd been at it all day.

"Jack?"

The only response was a pathetic grunted whimper. He was curled up on the floor, looking exactly like he'd doubled over in pain and then fell over without even trying to stop himself.

"What happened? Why didn't you call me?" She knelt down next to him, having to strain to hear his words.

"Hurts to breathe."

"Should I call an ambulance or do you think you just pulled something?"

"Morphine."

She hesitated for a second, thinking he really meant for her to call for help. But she saw the corners of his mouth upturned the slightest bit. "Are you hurt at all or do you just think this is funny?"

"Really hurts."

She folded her arms over her chest and stared at him.

"And it's funny."

She smiled as she stood up, hooking her arms under his shoulders to help him up. "Let's just get you to the bed." She didn't think he could fake the way he whined as he stood or the yelp when she helped him onto the bed. She did most of the work of turning him onto his stomach. "Ok, where's it hurt?"

"Back."

She closed her eyes and shook her head, glad he couldn't see the exasperation on her face. "Yeah, I got that much." She put her hand on his back, just below his neck. "Here?" He grunted something she took as a no and moved her hand lower between his shoulder blades. "Here?" Another grunt. Her hand moved down to his lower back. "Here?" Another grunt, but different. She took it as a yes. She leaned over him, careful not to touch his back, and put her mouth close to his ear. "If this is insurance to get your backrub, I'll have you know there is perfectly good pizza going bad in the kitchen." She watched as he tried to look at her, hindered by both the fact that she was behind him and that his back was sore. He wasn't faking. He wouldn't waste goo pizza. "Ok, if you say so."

She took a deep breath and let out a very quiet sigh. She'd promised herself that she could give him a backrub that wouldn't lead to sex and, with him injured, it very much appeared that was going to be the case. The problem was that she didn't know how to avoid getting turned on by sliding her hands all over his back. Her instincts told her that straddling him was undoubtedly going to get both of them in trouble, so she opted to sit off to the side, letting her hip rest against his. There was no point in being coy about physical contact at that point. She really had no idea what she was doing, but she figured every back rub she'd ever had felt good, even if it was by untrained hands.

Starting with his lower back, she worked her hands into the muscles, rubbing and kneading and, hopefully, helping to loosen the one that he'd pulled. He didn't flinch or scream, so she decided she was doing a good job. She glanced up at his face and saw that his eyes were closed. It made her smile to know that her hands were relaxing him, that her touch was making him feel good. It made her feel powerful. And particularly humble. She couldn't figure out why she was so special as to hold such a wonderful man's heart in her hands. She realized she needed to be more careful with it in the future; she'd already hurt him without intending to.

Her hands gradually moved up, exploring every inch of his skin that she could feasibly work into the context of a massage. She noticed he didn't complain the slightest bit, not when her hands drifted along his sides or across his neck. Not even when her pretense of a massage disappeared and her hands simply caressed his strong shoulders.

"Please don't ever stop doing that." His voice startled her; she'd thought he'd fallen asleep.

She couldn't keep the smile off her face. "You like that, huh?"

"You're a miracle worker."

"Good to know I'm not entirely useless." Her hands continued their possessive journey along his shoulders and she wondered how he would react if her lips followed the same path. He would react favorably, she realized, probably rolling over and repaying her eagerly. She pushed the idea aside and decided to let the peace settle between them a little bit before she stirred that pot back up.

"I never said you were useless, Carter. You're just a little inept at childcare."

"I'm trying."

"And cooking."

"Got me there."

"But you so make up for it with backrubs." The smile on his face reflected in his voice.

"You forgot relationships. I'm entirely useless in relationships." Her hands stilled, resting lightly on his sides.

"Relationships are messy. If you were good at messy, you'd be better at the cooking thing."

She smiled, knowing he understood her and the bizarre dance she'd been doing towards him. "That's why I like science. The only time numbers are messy is when you don't understand them and then you learn them and they're not messy anymore." She took a deep breath. "How's your back?"

"Better. Thank you." He shifted slightly, rolling onto his side away from her.

"You should sleep with a heating pad to make sure it doesn't tense up during the night." Only one of her hands was still in contact with him and she wished she didn't have to break it. "I'll go get you one."

"I've got a better idea." He reached back, snagging her hand from his side and pulling it forward until she stretched out along his back. "Heating pads are fire hazards."

She tucked her face over his shoulder, trying not to be overwhelmed by how perfect it felt to hold him. "Right and fire hazards are bad."

"Very bad."

"And we have a baby."

"Exactly why fire hazards are bad."

She grinned as his fingers laced through hers. "And you said you weren't a smart guy."

"You know-" He pulled her hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss onto her fingers. "A little messiness never hurt anyone, Carter."

The muffled sound of a baby's cries woke Carter some time later. She was thoroughly confused at first. She didn't know where she was, who she was with, or who was crying. But reality dawned on her quickly. She immediately placed the smell that surrounded her, the intoxicating scent that could only belong to Jack O'Neill. As soon as she realized who he was, the rest of it fell back into place.

She instantly felt guilty for leaving Cheyenne alone in the living room. But she figured that Cheyenne had just woken up, since Jack appeared to be coming around too. A smile spread across her face when she saw that her hand was still tangled in his. "I'll get her, Jack. Go back to sleep." She tried to sit up and found that he wasn't releasing her hand. "Jack?"

He rolled onto his back and smiled at her. "Come back."

"Cheyenne is crying."

He nodded and Carter decided he was as adorable sleepy as he thought she was frazzled. "I know that. When she's settled, come back."

"Oh." She realized what he was asking and although she hadn't put any thought into it until he mentioned it, she knew she probably would have opted for her bed when she eventually did think about it. "Ok."

Falling asleep in bed with him unplanned was one thing. She could rationalize that to herself. But choosing, wide awake, to crawl back in bed with him, well, that was another thing altogether.

As she changed Cheyenne and fed her, Carter realized it had to have been a much bigger thing for Jack to brave asking her. She set a sleeping Cheyenne back in her bassinette a few minutes later, switched off the oven, and put the untouched pizza in the refrigerator. Then she picked up the blanket from the hallway where Jack had left it before he'd hurt his back, and slipped back into the guest room.

She stood at the edge of the bed, trying to make out his features in the darkness. He'd drifted back to sleep in the time she was gone and she didn't want to disturb him. That was the excuse she used as she tiptoed backwards toward the door. She hadn't been lying about not liking messy things and their relationship was as messy as they got. He was still her CO and that thought scared her.

Her hip connected with the dresser as she backed up, sending the screw driver rolling loudly across the surface. She grabbed it, silencing the racket. She peeked at the bed.

"Carter?" His eyes opened, squinting until they fell on her. "Come here." His arm stretched across the empty place beside him. She couldn't resist. She didn't want to.

She stepped forward once again, spreading the blanket over them as she curled into his chest. His arm came around her shoulders and he muttered something she didn't hear into her hair. "Good night, Jack."

"Night, baby."

She smiled against his chest. Their relationship didn't seem so messy anymore. It seemed exceedingly clean and simple, easy to understand, impossible to ignore.


	20. Chapter 20

_AN: Ok, so there's only one more part after this (should be, at least). Please leave a comment if you like it!_

Chapter Twenty

It was a delicious smell that woke her in the morning. She was a bit disappointed that she was alone in bed, but she rationalized that they'd made great strides in their relationship already and it was probably better not to push too hard too fast. She headed out to the kitchen and found Jack assembling a large stack of pancakes. Her stomach growled loudly, drawing Jack's attention and causing her cheeks to flush.

"Morning." He continued pouring batter into the pan and Carter wondered who was going to eat all eight million pancakes he was in the process of making.

"I'm starving."

He grinned. "Chocolate chip, just for you. Dig in."

She moved several of them onto her plate. "Just for me and ten of my closest friends?"

"We didn't eat dinner last night. I'm starving too."

"And just whose fault was that?" She didn't look up as she poured syrup on her plate.

His hands came down on her shoulders and his cheek pressed against hers. "It was worth it."

She rolled her eyes, trying to hide how unglued his proximity made her feel. "Maybe for you."

He took the last of the pancakes off the stove and sat down across from her, piling an absurd number of pancakes onto his plate. Apparently, he was ten of her closest friends. "Then I'll have to reciprocate so you can see just how nice it was."

She swallowed hard, coughing and taking a sip of water. From the way he'd said it, it didn't seem like he was trying to flirt with her, but the words were inherently flirtatious. If he was giving the backrub, he would be in control of the situation, just the was she had been in control the previous night. Nervous butterflies took up residence in her stomach. Then she started to smile. She trusted him. Completely. "If you insist."

He grinned smugly. "Oh, I do." With that decision made, they both quietly went back their breakfast.

Carter was actually impressed at how many of the pancakes Jack consumed. She was disgusted by how many of them she ate. She stood up, wishing she'd thought better of the third helping. "I'm going to go for a run."

"I'd join you, but I ate too much." Jack got as far as the couch before he collapsed. "I'll just wait here."

Carter changed her clothes and walked back to the living room. Jack was channel-surfing, something she'd discovered was a particular favorite pastime of his, and he had Cheyenne planted on his chest for a nap. On her way out the door, she passed the stroller they hadn't bothered to assemble yet. Grinning, she dragged it to the living room and opened the box. She wasn't that sold on running and with Cheyenne's assistance, she could excuse going for a leisurely walk instead.

Jack glanced at her. "Lazy."

She grinned and started scattering stroller parts on the floor around her. "One run is hardly going to make the difference, considering the way you're feeding me."

He grinned, quite proud of his talent in the kitchen. "There was no beer in the pancakes, so they should count as low-cal."

She laughed as she started piecing the stroller together. "Well, then, I can count the walk toward dinner, right?"

He shifted Cheyenne around until he could lie flat. "Just don't expect me to go with you."

"And I probably shouldn't expect you to help with this either."

He sat up immediately, his guilty expression in place. "I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, rolling her eyes. "I was kidding, Jack."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She showed him the pieces she's already fit in place. "It's no problem."

"You're really sure?" He watched her nod. "This isn't some kind of a trick, is it?"

She smirked. "You need to save your strength."

His guilt transformed into confusion and then dread. "Why? You're not going to make me paint something else, are you?"

She shook her head. "You owe me a backrub."

He grinned and settled back on the couch. "How could I forget?"

She worked on the stroller for a few minutes, having to retrieve the screw driver Jack had left on the dresser in his room to attach the wheels. "How's your back today?"

"It's perfect."

"Seriously. Is it bothering you?" She'd been worried about hurting him further; she hadn't actually expected to cure anything.

"Really. It's like new."

"I'm good." She grinned at him.

He winked. "I think the warm compress made all the difference."

Her face was burning when she turned back to the stroller. That man could do things to her heart rate and blood pressure she knew Janet wouldn't approve of. Luckily, the finishing touches on the stroller ate up all of her attention for several minutes. Once it was together, she snatched Cheyenne right off Jack's chest. "We're going for a walk."

He frowned. "She was keeping me warm!"

Carter shook her head. "There's no way this tiny thing was keeping you warm. Get a blanket."

Jack ignored her advice, instead pulling one of the throw pillows onto his chest and hugging it. "It's not as good as Cheyenne."

"Now who's lazy?"

Jack grinned up at her. "I'm not being lazy. I'm conserving energy for your back rub."

"By all means, then, carry on! We'll be back in a little while."

"Have fun." He didn't even open his eyes.

She'd never been much bigger on walking than running. When it came down to it, she actually preferred to run because she felt like she accomplished more in the same amount of time. But taking a walk with Cheyenne was different. The world seemed newer.

There was a park a few blocks away and she headed there. She took Cheyenne out of the stroller and starting pointing out objects to her daughter. She wished Jack was there as Cheyenne tested out the feel of grass, gurgling happily all the while. Having a baby certainly made things more fun. She let herself talk in a silly baby voice, making exaggerated faces and entertaining herself as much as she was Cheyenne.

As she was settling Cheyenne back in the stroller to go home, she nearly got hit by a runaway Frisbee. She looked up with a smile, expecting an apologetic kid. Instead, she got Michael.

Michael was a dead ringer for David James Elliot and, if plied with alcohol, Carter would admit to Janet, and Janet alone, that was the only reason she'd agreed to go out with him. But Michael's good looks didn't make up for the staggering lack of conversation skills. Two dreadful hours into a date where she'd learned far more than she ever wanted to know about the exciting world of financial consulting, she swore she would never again go out with a man simply because he was nice to look at. Of course, that date had been little more than those two painful hours and several years earlier. She was sure Michael, whose last name escaped her entirely, had forgotten all about her because she expected he'd probably had at least five hundred dates since then. Sadly, she'd only been on two others in the five years since Michael, so she was sure she should have been able to recall his name.

"Samantha?" Michael, who hated to be called Mike, firmly believed in calling everyone by their full name, regardless of their feelings on the subject.

She closed her eyes, praying for a moment of strength, and handed over his toy. "Michael, I didn't recognize you for a minute there." She despised being called Samantha. She'd been Sam ever since she could talk. Except for Jack, of course. Although he'd probably only said it twice in the whole time she'd known him, and probably only then in the context of introducing her to someone, she loved it when he called her Samantha. Although something about his voice convinced her she'd love anything he called her.

Michael, she remembered a moment too late, was extremely gregarious and very hands-on. He wrapped her in a tight hug, nearly lifting her off the ground. "How are you? What have you been up to?"

She wasn't about to make up five years worth of lies about what she did for a living. So she distracted him, waving her hand over the stroller. "This is Cheyenne."

Michael's eyes lit up. "Wow! Isn't she just precious!" Without invitation, he reached into the sanctity of Cheyenne's stroller and scooped the infant up, holding her up in the air. "You're just the spitting image of your mother, aren't you?" He winked conspiratorily at Carter. "You'd better watch out. She's going to be a heartbreaker like you!"

Carter's horrified face should have warned him to put Cheyenne right back down, but Michael had never been one to notice much beyond himself. He shook the girl in what Carter considered a rough fashion and made faces at her. Cheyenne's eyes were open wide, regarding the man for only a second before she opened up her mouth and started screaming.

Carter used the distraction to reach for her, pulling her safely into her arms. "Michael, she's only a couple weeks old. She's not used to strangers." She didn't know why she was bothering with excuses; she kind of wanted to scream in terror too. Cheyenne refused to be calmed. "I should get her home. She's not used to so much excitement."

"Let me walk you home!" He threw the Frisbee back at the group which was waiting for him. "I'm going to walk my girls home!"

Carter looked down at Cheyenne and wondered if maybe the misery on her face was why Cheyenne was so upset. She figured the best thing to do was to get Cheyenne home as soon as possible. "No, really, Michael, it's fine. Stay with your friends. I'll see you around." She tucked Cheyenne back into the stroller and started walking, thoroughly irritated when Michael fell in step beside her.

"What if you need protection?" He smiled a smile Carter was sure got him a lot, but it wasn't going to get him anything with her. In fact, the more she looked at him, the more she wondered how she'd ever been attracted to him.

"I'm completely capable of defending myself." She'd kick anyone's ass who tried to touch Cheyenne. She was toying with the idea of kicking Michael's to demonstrate.

"Right, I forgot, you don't like chivalry." He was undoubtedly, Carter imagined, referring to the way she'd jumped out of his car and ran into the house before he had the chance to open the door for her.

She glared at him. "I don't respect anything useless." When Jack was chivalrous, however, that was a different story. He did it to be thoughtful and to show her that he saw her as more than a military officer and a scientist. She liked that he noticed she was a woman too. Michael just did it to prove that he was a man.

"How about if I'm just being nice?"

Unfortunately, Carter had been raised to be polite and she always fell back on that when she ran out of ideas for getting rid of someone. She gritted her teeth and looked down at her inconsolable daughter. "Then I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but you shouldn't feel like it's necessary."

Michael grinned happily at his victory. "It's no problem at all, Samantha."

Even more unfortunately, Jack had grown bored with the TV and was sitting on the porch steps waiting for Carter and Cheyenne to return. The dark look in his eyes when Carter noticed him let her know that he had seen her companion much earlier and that he wasn't happy. She pushed the stroller up to the steps as Jack stood.

"Michael, this is my- uh-" Words utterly failed her at that moment.

Jack thrust his hand out, smiling the fakest smile Carter had ever seen. "Jack. Nice to meet you."

Michael's face was less successful in hiding his unhappiness, but he tried to smile as he shook the proffered hand. "Yeah, you too. I'll see you around, Samantha."

Carter didn't even get a chance to respond before Michael practically ran back down the street. She smiled at Jack. "Thank you for getting rid of him."

Jack's eyes fixed her with a cold stare. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" She shrugged, having enough sense not to mention the date she'd been on with Michael. "He's a guy I know. He insisted on walking me home. I haven't even seen him in years."

He reached down, scooping Cheyenne, whose cries had turned into a wail, into his arms. "Do not use my daughter to pick up guys."

"Jack! That's ridiculous!" Carter wasn't even sure why she should dispute that statement, since according to every woman she'd ever met who was single and had children, the presence of children was not an aphrodisiac. "Men do that with dogs. Not women with babies."

He didn't respond. Unless she counted walking into the house and slamming the door a response.


	21. Chapter 21

_AN: Ok, so this isn't the last part. See it's all written and when I looked at it, I realized it was really, really long. So I broke it up. I'm not sure about the last piece or if it will become the last two pieces. Sorry about the miscalcuation, but some of you didn't want it to end so quickly, so consider this a reprieve! Please leave a review if you like it!_

Chapter Twenty-One

It was much harder to storm into the house and slam the door with a stroller, but Carter managed it. Cheyenne's cries hadn't quieted any, which made it easy to locate Jack and also clued her in on the fact that Jack hadn't calmed down at all. She found him in the kitchen, warming up a bottle.

"Damn it, Jack, I'm not doing this again." She didn't understand how easily their tenuous balance could be upset. She hadn't even realized it was that tenuous. With the exception of two weeks, their relationship had been rock-solid nearly since the day they met.

He turned around, no hint of anger on his face. "Doing what?" His voice was even, but his eyes were icy.

"I didn't do anything to deserve this. If I could have lost him, I would have."

He went back to watching the bottle. "Do whatever you want. I don't care."

"The hell you don't." She knew he was jealous. He had to be; it was the only explanation for his behavior.

"You know, I need to go out for a little while, so can you watch the baby or do you have a date?"

She didn't know what had happened to the cuddly, flirty Jack, but she didn't like the green-eyed monster who'd taken his place. "Of course I'll take care of my daughter." Something inside her snapped and she let her temper get the better of her. "Go have your temper tantrum. Come back when you grow up." And then she froze. All of a sudden, she was well aware that she'd mouthed off to her CO. Her jaw dropped open and she backed up a step. Despite the relaxed rules, despite his request that she call him Jack, it didn't feel right to her. She expected that it didn't feel right to him either, judging by the spark of anger that flashed in his eyes. She looked at the ground and waited for the reprimand.

When he spoke, his voice was soft and drew her eyes back up to his shell-shocked face. "I'm sorry." He looked down and Carter wondered why he was so hurt; she thought he should have been angry. "I do have to go out. I'll be back later."

Carter was too stunned to say a word as he handed Cheyenne to her. The girl was still crying, making Carter's silence seem louder somehow. She wasn't sure what to do; she would have preferred a reprimand. It would have left her on solid ground - knowing what was acceptable, knowing what was not.

He only took one step before he spoke words that shocked her even more. "I know you didn't do anything, Sam, I know that. I saw you with him."

"But-"

He held up his hand to quiet her objection, but the dark heat in his eyes would have done the same thing anyway. "I didn't like it."

She didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing as he walked away. She didn't even know what to think. It was a long time before she even realized that Cheyenne was still wailing in her arms. She looked at her daughter, whose innocent soul seemed to be making the whole world go insane. "It's ok, honey." Se couldn't be sure if things were ok or not. She wasn't even sure what had just happened.

She managed to get Cheyenne to stop crying with the help of a bottle. Carter was too distracted and irritated to get into anything important, like studying the childcare books she'd bought. Her eyes fell on the baby store catalog that was still sitting exactly where Jack had thrown it that morning. She picked it up, trying to rid herself of the anxiety and only wound up remembering they were supposed to go shopping together. Putting the catalog back down, she seriously considered changing out of her workout clothes, since she hadn't even gotten a workout, but it required more energy than she could muster up.

She hadn't done anything wrong. In her mind, the worst she'd done was not mention that she'd gone out with Michael, but she didn't see how that bit of truth would have helped the situation and he hadn't actually given her a chance to say it.

But it wasn't just the fact that they'd fought again - not even just the fact that she was sure a reprimand was eventually coming for her words. It was the fact that she'd seen Jack jealous, raw and honest and unashamed. It amazed her to know that she unleashed that in him, that he couldn't or wouldn't control it in front of her. It scared her too.

She wasn't quite prepared to see him when he came back a little while later. She wasn't sure what to expect from him either - she figured the point of him leaving was to calm down and she didn't think he'd come back until he wasn't angry anymore. At the same time, she assumed the time away would allow him to realize how rude she'd been and she didn't know how that would affect his mood when he returned.

When he came in, he sat next to her on the couch. "Hi."

She looked at him, completely off-balance by his apparent good mood. "Hi."

"I'm sorry about earlier, Carter. I was out of line and I promise you that it won't happen again."

Her first instinct was to shrug off his apology and offer her own. But she thought his words were accurate. He was the one who'd flown off the handle, even if she'd been rude as well. She nodded and found herself saying exactly what she'd decided against telling him. "I went out with him once." She saw his eyes narrow the slightest bit, but he didn't erupt and she didn't give him another chance. "But it was only once and it was five years ago and I had a horrible time and I haven't seen him since."

His mouth quirked up the slightest bit, unable to suppress the happiness the truth brought. "You don't have to tell me about every man you've ever dated and, honestly, I don't want you to." He looked down at his hands. "I know you said no when I asked you to marry me and I think I understand why, but the lines started to blur on me with being here all the time and I forgot for a minute that I had no right to react like a jealous boyfriend."

She smiled at him, already having forgiven him. "There was nothing to be jealous of."

"Not even that mega-watt smile of his?"

Carter grinned. "I like yours better." She watched as he took in her words, understood that she was actually flirting first. She watched as the involuntary smile spread across his face, showing her what she wanted to see. She watched as he blushed a deep crimson. "So, are you taking me shopping or what?"

"As long as you promise you won't embarrass me."

She giggled as she stood up. "I can promise no such thing."

Jack stood up, retrieving the car seat from the hallway. "Fine, I'll take you shopping under duress with the threat of public humiliation hanging over my head, but only because of those dimples." He winked and she giggled again. Her dimples had come in handy over the years, but never more than right then.

Carter had been to Baby World several times in her life. She knew a lot of people who had babies and she was quite familiar with the process of parking in the giant lot, hiking a mile to the door while dodging the runaway carts of the women who let go of them while chasing their runaway toddlers, walking immediately up to the computer kiosk, keying in the name of her friend, and printing out the registry. The next step was to find the first person in the silly red vest who would grab her the first couple of items on the list that totaled the dollar figure she had previously determined she would spend. Occasionally, and only if she were substantially under budget, she would stop by the bins of small stuffed toys and pick out one in an androgynous color. The whole process took a little less time than the rest of her regular errands and it was a necessary evil. Even though she was usually attempting to achieve the purchase while on a stolen hour break from the base while the world was facing annihilation, she always figured it was a good idea to expect that the world wasn't actually going to end and that she would be expected to send a gift in lieu of her actual presence at the baby shower.

Baby World, however, was an entirely different animal when one wasn't armed with a detailed list of what to buy. Especially when there was a baby and a back pack that doubled as a diaper bag and a man who, once he spied the assorted stuffed animals in the bins, suddenly began to resemble one of those runaway toddlers in the parking lot.

"Look! It's a rhinoceros!" He thrust the pink animal in her face as though to make sure she really did look.

She pulled back enough so that her eyes could focus on it. "It's pink."

He frowned and picked up another one. "What about this one?"

"It's yellow."

He narrowed his eyes and she knew he was trying to recall the conversation they'd had two weeks earlier. "So that's better, right?"

"If we buy her a hippopotamus, is she going to grow up thinking that we think she's fat?" She waited for Jack to look thoroughly horrified. Then she grinned. "Let's splurge."

"We can get one?"

"Get them both. She loves that pink rattle. Although I imagine at some point we're going to have to tell her she's not supposed to try to eat it."

"Really? Both? Can we?"

She cracked up right in his face. "Jack, I'm her mother. Not yours. You can buy whatever the hell you want."

He grinned and tossed both animals in the cart. A minute later, he grabbed several others and threw them in too. Then he shrugged at her. "This way she can pick the one she likes."

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of decisions they confronted, Carter deferred to Jack's guidance on most things. But every once in a while, she couldn't help but eye the things he put in the cart and wonder.

"Jack, do we really need that many t-shirts?"

He looked at her, then at Cheyenne who was drooling down her shirt again, and then back at Carter. "Yes."

Carter looked at the baby and shrugged. "Ok."

The one thing Carter insisted on was checking up and down every aisle in case Jack or Daniel had forgotten something. They wandered into the area with the baby monitors and Jack actually consulted her about which she thought would work better. She felt proud that she could feel useful once again. And then her eyes fell on the cameras, nanny-cams as they were called, specially designed to spy on whoever was caring for the baby. Carter saw one particularly tiny one, specifically designed to be concealed inside a stuffed animal.

Jack looked at the box and kept walking. "Carter, we don't have a nanny so we don't need to spy on her."

Carter didn't move as she studied the box, more concerned that she might need to worry about her daughter's safety than at the idea that they sold spy equipment at Baby World. She looked up, feeling particularly unsettled at the thoughts rolling around in her head. "I'm going to have to go back to work eventually, Jack."

Jack looked devastated, as though such a thought had never occurred to him, or more likely, as though he'd never let such a thought occur to him. "I thought you could stay home. Consult or something."

Not only was Carter acutely aware that staying at home would bore her out of her mind eventually, but she also was irritated at the idea that she couldn't even if she wanted to. "Most women who stay home have husbands to take care of them." She put the camera in the cart and continued walking past Jack. She didn't want to get emotional and she feared the idea of leaving Cheyenne in daycare was liable to make her burst out crying in public.

Jack's hand fell on top of hers, stopping her from pushing the cart further. "I can take care of you."

Tears spilled down her cheeks so suddenly that she didn't have time to hide them, but they blinded her from seeing the shock on Jack's face. "That's not fair to you." She ducked her head, embarrassed at the raw emotion she was showing.

Jack stepped forward, pulling her into a hug and shushing her. "It's ok, Carter."

A vaguely familiar voice joined in the private conversation. "My wife was the same way for a couple months after Caitlin was born. Don't worry about it."

Carter peeked up, only to discover the man who'd accosted them in the supermarket. "I had no idea this was such a small town."

The man, once again baffled by Carter's comments, took something off a shelf and disappeared to find his wife. Jack looked back at Carter and shrugged. "I think having a baby with you is some sort of universal code for wanting random strangers' opinions."

Carter nodded, knowing that he was trying to get her to smile. She wiped at her tears. She didn't even know why she was crying. Of course she would have to work. Of course Cheyenne would go to day care. Of course they would both survive the experience. "Sorry. I just never really thought about leaving her with someone besides you."

"You trust me, right?" When she nodded, Jack smiled at her, reaching over to pick up the camera and placing it on the shelf. "We don't need this."

Jack spent the rest of the trip trying to annoy her into a better mood by picking out pink everything. Carter eventually got sucked into his good mood, taking out everything pink and demanding politely that he pick another color. Unfortunately, the reason that Daniel and Janet and Teal'c had not bought a diaper bag was apparently caused by an apparent nationwide diaper bag shortage. There were only two options - a black one with wheels that reminded Carter of a carry-on and a horrendous bright pink one with even brighter pink neon stripes. Even Jack was stunned at the utter pinkness.

He looked at Carter, horror reflecting on his face. "To think they actually must have exercised some kind of restraint is truly amazing."

"Jack, we're not buying either of those." Carter folded her arms over her chest.

He winced at the selection, desperately craning his head to see if there were others hidden somewhere else. "We need a diaper bag, Carter."

"What's wrong with the back pack?" It seemed to be working so far, but Carter was pretty sure, based on his purchases so far, that Jack didn't like anything without cartoon animals on it, which she had every intention of teasing him mercilessly about for the rest of time.

"It's a back pack. Not a diaper bag. We need a diaper bag." He scratched his head and tried to decide which one to buy.

"I swear to God, if you buy either of those bags, Jack, I'm going to start crying again."

He looked at her and grinned. "Does that mean I can hug you again?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Absolutely not." Her eyes twinkled as an idea struck her. "In fact, I'll stand here and wail like Cheyenne and not let you near me so that every single simp in this store will walk over and tell you how he comforts his irrational wife."

Alarmed at his choices, Jack turned around and immediately found himself facing an assortment of patches featuring his beloved cartoon animals. "Maybe we can sew these on the back pack."

"I don't know how to sew and if you say you do, Jack, it's going to dramatically change the way I feel about you."

"I promise I don't know how to sew." He was still looking at the patches and Carter knew she hadn't gotten the message across. "Maybe we can get someone to sew them on for us. We know a lot of people. Someone must be able to sew."

Carter shook her head, grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a shove forward. Then she grabbed the cart and followed. "I think it's time to go, Jack."


	22. Chapter 22

_AN: Ok, kids... this is the last part. It's super long, but I think you'll enjoy it. Thanks for reading! _

Chapter Twenty-Two

With their new, almost agreed-on purchases loaded in the truck, Carter climbed in the back to fasten the car seat in place. Jack had been the one to do it when they were leaving the house, but she'd left him the responsibility of returning the cart through the lot of unattended toddlers and speeding cars. As she was climbing out, she noticed a file folder on the floor. She wasn't one to go through things that weren't hers and certainly not her CO's things, but she was particularly curious about it. It took all of her strength not to peek at it as she put it on the dashboard. Just because she wasn't peeking didn't mean she wasn't going to ask.

Her eyes were glued to the folder, except for the moment she took to check on Jack's progress. She didn't see him and she was about to reach out and open it when the door suddenly opened. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Ready to go?"

Carter's attention ripped off the folder. She hoped she didn't look guilty. "That was under the seat."

He looked nervous as he glanced between the folder and Carter. "You didn't look?"

She shook her head, trying to look innocent. "What sort of person do you think I am?"

He smiled, visibly relaxing as he pulled one sheet out of the folder that obviously contained more. "It's Cheyenne's birth certificate."

Carter smiled, immediately forgetting about Jack's weird behavior. "Really?" She took it from him and looked at it. Her heart leapt unexpectedly when she saw their full names spelled out as mother and father. She felt proud when she saw Cheyenne's name spelled out. But then she looked up at him. "I thought we weren't going to do that."

He looked concerned. "Do what?"

"I thought we agreed on O'Neill."

He grinned again. "It's her middle name, Carter. I don't recall you objecting to that."

She hadn't really gotten around to thinking of a middle name. "Cheyenne Carter O'Neill."

"I'm sure you can tell Janet that I got it wrong and she'll fix it." His voice was flat, hurt, nervous. And Carter realized that it was as important to him that Cheyenne have her name as it was to her that Cheyenne have his name.

She shook her head. "It's fine. I hadn't thought about a middle name."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Jack." She smiled at him, reaching out to squeeze his hand. They weren't so good at the verbal communication. She thought about that night in the kitchen and the previous night she'd spent with her arms around him. They certainly did much better at the physical part.

The longer she spent in the truck, the more curious she got concerning what else was in that folder. She wanted to ask, but she knew Jack would tell her when he was ready and that asking before he was ready would have no effect. And she didn't want to risk making him mad again. Luckily, it didn't take long for them to get home and Carter could distract herself by going through the new things they'd bought for Cheyenne. Jack spent the rest of the afternoon playing silly games with the baby that made Carter wonder if he'd regressed mentally a few decades.

By the time they had dinner, Carter had all but forgotten about the little incident over Michael and the file folder in the truck. Jack was in his element while he was cooking, pouring beer liberally into everything he made. Carter thought it was funny, which she blamed on the fact that she'd been drinking about as much beer as Jack, which was remarkably more than he poured in the food. They both laughed their way through dinner, loosened up considerably by the alcohol. Jack put in a movie afterward and slung his arm around Carter's shoulders and Carter, without any conscious thought, wound up snuggled against his chest. She drifted off hallway through the movie and would have been quite content to stay there forever.

Jack shifted to check on Cheyenne, waking Carter in the process. He smiled as he tried to settle his arm back around her. "Sorry."

Carter was feeling too good - from the beer and the nap and the snuggling - and she was hopelessly charmed by the sight of Jack checking on her daughter. She only smiled, shifting herself more comfortably against him. "It's ok."

"Come on." He stood up, reaching out his hand for her.

The nervous butterflies were back, waking her and sobering her simultaneously. It was the same as the previous night - he was asking her to decide to join him. It still unnerved her, as sure as she was about him, about them. She did want to take it slow. She did want to discuss it before they did anything. But she knew, and he knew too, that spending so much time in close proximity was likely to result in one of them making a quick decision without the benefit of forethought. He was asking her to play with fire and he knew she wanted to. Her indecision showed on her face.

"I owe you a backrub, Carter." His voice was as intoxicating as the beer had been and more addictive.

She slipped her hand into his and let him lead the way to her bedroom. Part of her was inundated with nerves as she followed, but the rest of her trusted him completely and knew he wouldn't let them make a mistake. Their relationship was just as important to him. She lay down on her belly and waited for his hands to work their magic. She knew she was tense - he wouldn't be able to miss that.

"Take off your shirt."

She smiled to herself. She knew he figured his request would throw her, but she'd never changed out of her running clothes - she'd spent the whole day in sweatpants, a t-shirt, and, unbeknownst to Jack, a sports bra. She knew that sports bras were not what any man was expecting when a woman stripped and they were impossible for a man to remove without help. The added bonus was that Jack had, unintentionally of course, seen her in one before, so he wouldn't even get to see anything he hadn't seen before. She hid her smile as she pulled her shirt off and settled back down.

"Cheater."

She laughed in response. "I never said I would make it easy for you."

A second later, he turned the tables on her, straddling her the way she hadn't dared do to him the previous night. His hands felt hot on the skin of her shoulders. She was nervous and the thought, the feel, of him on top of her, should only have made her more so. But his hands were amazing, stripping years of stress out of her muscles with practiced ease.

She had to clench her teeth to keep from moaning at how great it felt. Somehow he seemed to know exactly where she was tense and exactly how to get her to relax. It wasn't merely the massage that was driving her out of her mind; no, it was the feel of his hands on her, his weight pressing against her. The heat in his skin seemed to intensify until it felt like her skin was burning. She wondered if that had been the way it felt for him, if her hands scored his back with the unspoken need to touch him. She felt herself relax, despite all the thoughts running through her mind. All the tension left her without her permission, melted right out of her body by his insistent hands.

She hardly noticed when his touch changed the same way hers had, becoming feather light, just brushing her, barely making contact. But it seemed different to her somehow than her touches had been intended to feel. She'd enjoyed touching him and wanted him to enjoy it too, to feel good. Rather than a simple caress the way hers had been, his touch felt more possessive. It felt like he was staking his claim on her, branding her, with his searing hands. Every instinct in her brain told her to be mad, to resist such a display, to deny acceptance of his claim. Her brain wanted to hate that he saw her like that - that she was his property somehow. But she knew that wasn't how he saw her at all.

Just like her mind knew better than to give in to the way he was touching her, she knew he was thinking the same thing, that he shouldn't be touching her like that, that he shouldn't be touching her at all.

And just like his body continued to mark her, regardless of his higher brain function, her body gave in to him. Her skin came alive, tingling, burning, making her more desperate for him.

Thought process be damned, her body wanted his to claim her. On the intellectual level, they were still teammates, friends, coworkers. On the emotional and physical levels, the bond went much deeper. She wondered which side was going to win; she wondered which side she wanted to win. Her brain was growing weary of the constant struggle.

His weight shifted then, his hands leaving her skin entirely. She almost cried out for losing the incredible sensation. But his weight shifted forward, pressing against her back. Her eyes opened, seeing one of his hands on her left, bracing himself to keep from crushing her. Then his lips found her skin and her eyes fluttered closed as she gave herself over to the feeling. His lips brushed her shoulder first, slowly caressing their way to her neck. He kissed her cheek and her chin. She nearly screamed when she felt his mouth open against her ear, his tongue tracing it. She reached out, using all of the voluntary muscle control she could summon to bring one of her hands to his. He'd lowered himself to his elbows and she blindly searched along his arm until her hand found his. Their fingers tangled together; her tolerance of his actions spurring him on.

She was sure she would pass out when he sucked her earlobe into his mouth, flicking at it with his tongue. Trying to separate herself from the awareness of what was happening, she tried to dissect why and how he was making her go crazy. She wore earrings nearly everyday. When she was twelve she'd let a friend pierce them with a safety pin. Her ears were not the most sensitive part of her anatomy by far. And yet, with the lightest touch on that insensitive skin, he'd managed to restore every bit of tension he'd released in her and then some. She knew, in that moment, that she wasn't going to stop him. She didn't want to. She didn't think she could. She was sure she'd lose her mind if she didn't find release in his arms.

His mouth finally ceased its torment of her ear, probably unaware that he'd reduced her to a spineless, willing, desperate shell of what she had been. His lips grazed over her neck again, stopping here and there to lick at her skin. Her neck had always been particularly responsive, but her nerve endings had already been overloaded at that point and she knew she couldn't possibly be any more turned on than she already was. She wanted to flip over, reverse their positions, and tell him she'd had enough, make him finish what he'd started. She wanted to make him give in as completely as she had. But she couldn't move, couldn't speak. She could only lay there and let him seduce her.

His lips traveled down to the junction of her neck and shoulder. She knew it was the first place stress made itself known in her body. It had been where his hands had begun the torment only a few minutes earlier. She knew he'd be able to feel all that tension right back where it had been. Part of her expected that he'd reach for her again to try to relax her. Part of her expected that he'd simply continue to kiss her until he lost control the way she had.

None of her expected his mouth to open, nipping at the skin and muscle, teeth pressing down until it was no longer a nip. It had been exactly what she'd thought and, if her brain had been able to process anything besides raw need and unfathomable desire at that moment, she would have been amused to realize she'd been right. He was claiming her, instinctively, just like an animal in the wild. She'd thought he was in control, but he wasn't. His impulses had long since won the battle with his brain.

She could feel his teeth digging into her skin; not so hard to break the skin, but enough to leave a mark, enough to make clear his final comment regarding Michael and any other man she might ever look at. She couldn't clench her jaw hard enough to suppress the moan the spilled out. She'd never wanted him as much as she did right then. She'd never wanted anyone that badly. She almost whimpered when his teeth finally released her. His lips pressed back against the skin there, kissing her softly. She could feel him shaking as he lowered his forehead against her hair. She could feel his breath falling on her wet skin in short pants. She could feel his fingers quivering where her hand touched his. She hadn't even touched him. She hadn't even kissed him. She hadn't even looked at him. She'd never felt as powerful as she did then, feeling what his desire for her did to him.

And then in a flash, something changed. His hoarse, forced whisper against her hair, apologizing in a crushed, tearful voice. The freezing cold air that attacked her skin when he retreated from her. The painfully loud sound of the front door slamming behind him.

It took her several minutes before she had enough strength to sit up. She had to follow him. She had to give chase. She knew if she didn't it would be over, once and for all. She had to find him and tell him that his apology hadn't been necessary, that his touch hadn't been unwelcome, that his instincts hadn't misread her at all.

As she reached for her discarded shirt, she realized she was shaking too. Tears pricked her eyes at the knowledge that whatever they shared, it was equal. She needed him as much as he needed her. Any power she had over him was matched perfectly by the power he had over her.

She swiped at the tears in her eyes and tripped toward the front door. She didn't know how she would find him; her car had been abandoned at the base the day they'd brought Cheyenne home. She opened the door, ready to run down the street after him, without even knowing where he'd gone. But he hadn't gone far.

He was sitting on the front step with his face in his hands. His shoulders were shaking and she hated that he was crying. She didn't know what to say, so she sat down next to him, ignoring the way his body jerked away from hers. Grabbing one of his wrists, she pulled his hand from his face.

"Shh, come here." She pulled him, knowing she was no match for him in strength. Surprisingly, he didn't resist; not at all. His face burrowed into her neck, his arms wrapped around her waist. "It's ok." She held him, rubbing his back as he sobbed into her neck, mumbling more unnecessary apologies to her. "Don't, Jack. It's ok."

He pulled back all too soon, shielding his red eyes from her sight. "I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to push you. I -" His fists clenched tightly. "I lost it. I'm sorry, Carter. I swear I never meant to hurt you."

It took everything in her not to laugh at his last statement. Hurt was the complete opposite of what he'd done to her and he had no idea. "You didn't hurt me." She put her hand on his leg, hoping to drive home the point. "If that was you losing control, then I'm safer with you than I've ever been with anyone."

He looked at her, too startled to remember he was trying to hide his face in embarrassment. "I didn't scare you?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. I've seen worse." She saw his eyes darken and she knew she'd have to explain herself someday, to tell him about the one man who'd actually tried to hurt her in a drunken rage. The story ended pleasantly enough, though, at least for her, with him in the hospital and her free to find the man of her dreams. But it wasn't the night to get into all that. It was the night to settle what was between them, not in their past. "This whole thing, loving someone this much, scares me. But you don't, Jack."

"I know you, Carter. I know how you think. You want to be in control of everything. This is terrifying because you're not in control. Neither of us is." He reached out finally, wrapping his arm around her and hugging her to him. "I'm scared too."

She loved the feel of his arm around her. She loved the idea of them sitting together on the porch. She loved the thought of spending the rest of her life at his side. And she was able to open up in a way she'd never be able to manage. "I've never felt like this before, Jack."

His lips pressed against her hair. "Neither have I, Carter." He sat back, threading his fingers into her hair and turning her to face him. "There's something I have to tell you."

She was certain her heart stopped in her chest. She'd thought they were getting somewhere, but the tone of his voice told her he was about to pull the rug out from under her. "About what?"

"When I was being a jerk this morning about your friend and you snapped at me-" He stopped to take a breath and Carter had precisely enough time to panic, thinking only that he'd picked a fine time to reprimand her. "I saw the look in you eyes and it scared me. You were afraid that you'd snapped at your CO and you were waiting for me to yell at you." She looked up, wondering if he realized she was still awaiting that very thing. "But I was being an ass and you were completely right to call me on it and you shouldn't have to live in fear of setting me straight when I need it."

She had no idea what he was trying to say and therefore she had no idea what he expected her to say in response. So she just looked at him and waited.

"In the field, I was your CO. But here, like this-" He squeezed her shoulder to emphasize his point. "We're equals and if I deserve to get my head ripped off, I fully expect you to do it."

She nodded slowly, already trying to figure out how she could keep a mental line drawn between Colonel O'Neill and Jack. She knew it wouldn't be easy. And then something clicked. "Wait, you said you were my CO."

He smiled softly and nodded. "I said you we didn't need a nanny-cam either."

Her jaw dropped open. "Does this have something to do with the folder in the truck?"

"Yeah." He grinned proudly. "I retired. Again."

"Jack!" She couldn't imagine going to work without him, not seeing him on the base, not being with him all day.

"General Hammond thinks my military experience will come in handy as a consultant. The papers in the truck are the paperwork to make it all official."

"I don't know what to say." She didn't want to be happy that he'd made such a sacrifice for her, but she couldn't help being pleased that he'd done it for her and for Cheyenne, that he hadn't demanded that she make the sacrifice of her career. The fact that he was her CO was a huge part of what bothered her about their relationship. In fact, with that out of the way, she wasn't sure anything bothered her about their relationship.

"Say you'll think about marrying me now."

She smiled, thinking that her dream of sharing the O'Neill name with her daughter was a possibility after all. "Well, now that it's not criminal, I can probably consider it."

"Oh, and for the record, the General is just as certain that you could be steadily employed as a part-time consultant for the program as well, if you happen to be interested."

"I'll have to think about that one." It was good to have options, knowing that she didn't have to return to her dangerous job on the front lines and leave her baby behind. It was nice to know that she wouldn't have to sever herself completely from the job she loved too. She stood up, shivering as the cold night air starting to bother her. "What do you say we pick up where we left off?"

Jack accepted her hand as he stood up, searching her eyes for something. "Are you sure?"

She smiled as she led him back into the house. "Hey, if we can defend the planet from all numbers of countless evils, we can handle this, right?"

"Absolutely." He had to kick the door shut behind him because his arms were suddenly very full of Samantha Carter.


End file.
